JHK’s Three-Act Play, Big Slide
A log mansion in the Adirondack Mountains…
A big family on the run…
A nation in peril…
Visit the Big Slide Page to order, perform, or see sample scenes.

Ho ho ho! It’s that time of year again. Here’s JHK’s holiday classic: A Christmas Orphan.

11-year-old Jeff Greenaway hears his mom and dad argue one night after an office Christmas party. He infers from their garbled squabble that he is an orphan, found in a willow basket on the welcome mat outside their New York apartment. Thinking now that his parents are imposters, he steals away to Grand Central Station and buys a train ticket to Drakesville, Vermont, where he intends to start life all over again.Print | Kindle | Kobo (Digital) | Barnes & Noble (Digital)

Amid the general incoherence of the Tea Party rebels and the failure of progressives to recognize the structural changes underway in a peak oil world, lies a deadly swamp of paradox where all parties may drown in the quicksand of their own muddled intentions.

The Tea Party appeals to the swelling numbers of the new former middle class angry at the sudden vanishing of their accustomed perqs and entitlements to a predictably comfortable suburban existence. They’re mad at the government and hot for “liberty.” But how do they propose to maintain the hyper-complexities of suburban life without taxes to pay for fixing the countless roads their lives depend on or to run the gold-plated central school districts that seem to exist solely to provide Friday night football? As for liberty, a handful of despotic corporations from McDonalds to WalMart have been granted the liberty to destroy the Tea-bagger’s bodies and the economic fabric of their communities — and they seem to want more of that kind of liberty, based on the recent decision of a “conservative” majority on the Supreme Court allowing corporations to buy elections. The Tea-baggers also apparently crave the liberty to push other people around, especially on questions of abortion and religion. That’s an interesting kind of freedom.

As more and more of them lose jobs and incomes, will they resent their government-issued extended unemployment benefits? I doubt that you’ll see them burning their own checks in big public demonstrations the way the Vietnam War protesters burned their draft cards. And of course this also goes for the retiree Tea-baggers who show up at their Tea Parties to inveigh against the government — except the agency that prints their social security checks, or the other one that pays for their liver transplants (while 40-million unretired, un-insured Americans under sixty-five get slammed with extortionary hospital bills for twenty-thousand dollar routine appendectomies that end up bankrupting them).

Meanwhile, the progressives led by President Obama are doing everything possible to deny the deep tectonic changes thundering through our economic arrangements. They have embarked on a campaign to sustain the unsustainable that will only aggravate and accelerate the more destructive effects of the historic changes underway. For instance, the financial crisis is nature’s way of telling us that banking occupies too much space in our economy — especially the “creative” kind of banking which thrives on innovations in fraud and swindles. Yet the progressives are shoveling the nation’s accumulated savings (and way beyond that to earnings-not-yet-saved) into a handful of gigantic banks whose employees live in a separate universe of luxury, and the bail-outs only guarantee more financial mischief based on efforts to get something-for-nothing — in the absence of an economy that turns capital investment into things of value.

Faced with the multiple threats of peak oil, the progressives are pounding billions into the automobile makers and shoveling tons of stimulus money into highway improvement projects, while the railroads we will desperately need in the future continue to be starved to death, and no effort is made to promote walkable communities — including a federally-led reform of our insane zoning laws which mandate a suburban development outcome in every corner of the country.

Faced with the hangover of a housing bubble, the president’s team has insidiously nationalized the racket and is doing everything possible to keep housing prices unrealistically inflated, so that nobody still lucky enough to have a median income can afford the median price of a house. Meanwhile, the agencies used to facilitate this accounting shell game — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, etc. — are choking on worthless mortgage contracts and generating ever more new toxic mortgage paper.

Then, there is the question of our military adventures half a world away in Afghanistan and Iraq, where both parties are unwilling to face the basic conundrum of what happens when our troops leave those places. Even if we stamp out the current Taliban leadership there are countless avid up-and-comers burning to take their places, and numberless mountain valleys for them to hide in. Al Qaeda, of course, exists mainly as an international computer network. Good luck stamping that out. And if it’s oil we’re after in Iraq, there are three main possibilities after the last US soldier packs out: one is the unlikely possibility that a competent Iraqi national oil company decides to dole out drilling licenses to “preferred” companies (don’t hold your breath Exxon-Mobil); another is that Iraq cracks up into smaller ethnic units lacking the capital or coherence to get their oil out of the ground; and a third is that neighboring Iran comes to control the major oil-producing region around Basra. So, what’s it all about, Alfie? — besides squandering a trillion dollars we don’t really have.

Homeland security? Neither party is serious about defending the borders or limiting immigration, and anyway there are “soft” targets beyond counting all over the USA and small arms galore available to get the job done. Three guys with automatic rifles set loose in the Mall of America would be enough to push the retail sector over the edge into oblivion, taking with it the commercial real estate market and all the banks involved in financing it — in short, destroying the tattered remains of the so-called “consumer economy.”

My own guess about where this all leads is in the direction of more anger and incoherence by all parties involved — which will itself generate yet more anger in a spiraling centrifugal feedback loop that could eventually tear this nation apart. It will be instructive to see how some of these forces play out in the Health Care Reform “summit” that President Obama has called for this week. The Republicans will be rope-a-doped into the uncomfortable position of trying to explain why they have no ideas whatsoever about fixing the hopelessly cruel and unjust medical system that everybody except government employees suffers under. The Democrats will be juked into the equally unhappy position of explaining how a bankrupt US Treasury pays for a more equitable system — and the insurance companies will sit smirkingly on the sidelines watching both parties fail to address the necessary severe disciplining of the insurance racket.

In the background of even these momentous deliberations, the foundations of capital creak and shatter, the stock market infarcts and the bond market fibrillates, and all the accounting tricks ever dreamed of in the fantasies of Harvard MBAs and MIT math PhDs, and all the newly-evolved species of grifters and shysters who pull the levers of the system will not avail to hold back our inexorable journey into new circumstances that will really determine the outcome of these predicaments.

About James Howard Kunstler

James Howard Kunstler is the author of many books including (non-fiction) The Geography of Nowhere, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, Home from Nowhere, The Long Emergency, and Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology and the Fate of the Nation. His novels include World Made By Hand, The Witch of Hebron, Maggie Darling — A Modern Romance, The Halloween Ball, an Embarrassment of Riches, and many others. He has published three novellas with Water Street Press: Manhattan Gothic, A Christmas Orphan, and The Flight of Mehetabel.

I read that residents of Tracey, Ca will have to pay for 911 emergency calls.
And what about this tea party, where’s the conversation about all the taxes that go to what we used to call the War Dept?
Great post Jim.

Some excellent insight here into the destructive views of both the tea party movement and the progressives.
Both those species of political hacks of course will whitewash the inconvenient truths about their own side and claim that Kunstler agrees with their point of view.

If we aren’t now nor do we intend to be consumed with anger, we also need to avoid descending into depression as we consider all these aspects, especially the very uncertainty of it all. I like the way Sharon Astyk calls what we’re headed for “ordinary human poverty”. She points out that collapses have happened in lots of places and people don’t generally roast babies on spits even as a last resort. So, I don’t listen to people who say there’s no point in preparing because the marauding hordes will just come along and take over.
Starting to do something different from our present mall-centric habits not only opens our minds to the realities of looming change, but it opens our hearts to the plights of others whose dire future is here now. If more people did something like WWII victory gardens, wouldn’t that be sort of a bright spot and also a kind of notice to ostrich-like neighbors that the food system isn’t 100% reliable?
We went to a local festival on Saturday where I got to pick the brains of some very experienced organic gardeners. The big take-away point? If you’re removing ten pounds of veggies from a plot you’re going to have to add ten pounds of other organic matter (weeds, grass, leaves, kitchen scraps, manure, etc. as compost) if you expect your soil to remain (or become) productive. It’s nearly time to plant cabbage, tomato and pepper seedlings. Let’s get busy, folks. Even if it’s a pot on your apartment balcony. If we’re gonna cook it from scratch, we might as well try to grow some of it.
Lynn10in10diet.com/
Diet for a small footprint and a small grocery bill

I was reading on another blog about how the Corporate Republican party seemed to be on the verge of co-opting the whole Tea Party movement until John Stack flew his plane into the IRS building in Austin. Now it seems that they have a very hot potato in thier hands, and don’t know just quite what to do with it.
If they beat the “domestic terrorist” drum too hard, they will end up alienating the Tea Partiers.
If they side too much with his supporter, already calling him an American Hero, they end up on the side of the “domestic terrorist”.
Boy, whats a Neo-Con to do?
Lets wait and see how they deal with this one….

Jim, I love your Monday morning posts. I share you same cynically humorous sensibility. Anyone care to help me create content on http://www.aimlow.com I could use help… it’s may way to embrace my unemployment.

The fall is coming, and may get here before Spring even has a chance to get started. In news on Sunday we learn that OBAMA WANTS FEDERAL POWER TO BLOCK EXCESSIVE HEALTH INSURANCE RATE HIKES – “The Obama administration will propose legislation that would allow the government to block excessive rate hikes by health insurance companies, a senior administration official told CNN Sunday.”
We should be used to realizing that every “solution” will involve expanding Executive powers by now. Until that happy day when Congress is dissolved (and how many of us would vote the Senate out of existence today?) and we turn to a Supreme Leader (no doubt white, male and from the Oligarch class) to lead We the People to “freedom.”
And here at home, the number of north country (northern NYS) residents seeking assistance through Social Services programs continues to climb, evidence that a regional economic rebound could be a long time coming, officials say. Medicaid and food stamps requests are up 24% to nearly 2000 cases.
One local school superintendent is encouraging families to apply for free and reduced lunches with the dire economic times and record-high unemployment rates throughout the county. Of course, that increase not only helps out families in crises right now, but also positions that district to get more state and federal aid, if such ever materializes.
As for the economy, a new index of the trucking industry – based on how often they fuel up their big rigs – fell 37% in January. Oil keeps edging up, as do jobless claims, and no matter how much spin you try to put on the numbers, less awful than predicted is still awful. A sick economy is a sick economy, and the Goldman Sachs doctors in charge of the case are hopelessly compromised.

The new paradigm is “the old eating the young”. It is Soylent Green in reverse, economically (for now) that is. In order to support the ever growing entitlement programs and the “war effort” the country and the banking sector has turned to charging the cost to the young and yet unborn.
Because hardly anything of value is made here these days, the government and bankers have shifted from taxing local manufacturers to “pre-taxing” the young and unborn. The big corporations have exploited cheap labor overseas and shuttered local plants and bought the government.
The traditional – and only – method of creating wealth and prosperity by actually making things has been shipped overseas and the middle class left jobless and homeless in the wake.
The big corporations, acting as “individuals” have held the government and the nation hostage by buying every congressman and congresswoman and taking away most mom-and-pop enterprises from main street.
When the young people grow up and realize some day they are debt slaves, with absolutely nothing to show for it except a crumbling, post-peak world, that’s when the rage is going to really set in.

Before the war with a Persian Empire can take shape there must be an interval of time for the various spiritual, national, political and class tribes of Iran can coalesce. Once these elements take on marginally cohesive forms, the World Energy War will commence. The desired outcome of this adventure will be to have the map of the Middle East region resemble a time prior to the Ottoman Empire (1299-1923).

The Democrats will be juked into the equally unhappy position of explaining how a bankrupt US Treasury pays for a more equitable system

No, the Democrats’ health care plan has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office. Not only does the health reform plan pay for itself … it reduces the deficit.
Are you watching too much Fox News, Jim?

Whoa. Back off, buddy. Who you calling progressive?
I was getting madder and madder reading this post because JHK kept calling Obama and his plans “progressive”.
Then I realized that if you have corporate party blinders on, you can only see two parties, so you call the one with the kinder rhetoric “progressive”.
This is ridiculous bullshit. There are many real progressives out there and they (we) are vehemently opposed to Obama and his Wall Street and Exelon buddies. We are opposed to road building and suburban sprawl, pushing for railroad reconstruction. We are against tax funded bank bailouts, proposing state banks. Most call for single payer health care, although I personally prefer government run clinics and hospitals. We want to switch from a militarized, prison focused hateful society that profits from other people’s misery to a peaceful society that focuses on genuine human needs, keeping in mind the preservation of our ecosystem.
Of course we can afford to take care of our elderly. Calling for a civil war against grandma and grandpa is absolutely uncivilized.
Quit being so greedy. We can take care of all our citizens in a modest lifestyle if we back off the capitalist growth model and switch to a sustainable system that produces for use, not profit.
That, Jim, is a real progressive policy, not your corporate Democratic FIRE subsidy continuation, complete with oil wars and constant prison building.

We need to get out of using so much Agribusiness as usual, to limit the results of Peak Oil and Climate Change.
More people should consider growing food on their own. Be it on the balconey of their apartment house, or in their backyards, or on parts of their farms.
BioWebScape design project is something that I am trying to get going. Biodeversity, Networking on the Web, and LandScapes. It is an information gathering project using what we know about permaculture, Forest Gardening, The One Straw Revolution, and other biointensive growing methods; Plus gathering information about all the edible species of plants that we can know about, then correlating where those species could grow in the world.
Maximum numbers of plants that can be grown on any given peice of land, so that we use the natural systems in the best way possible.
I can imagine a day when, we don’t need to use FFs for producing food anymore. And we could supply people with food grown locally to reduce the need to truck food miles and miles to get to them.
Cheers for a better future,
Charles.

Who shops at Mall of America anymore? And, aren’t rifle rounds like $1.00 apiece (if you can find them)?
I’m sitting in the back of a classroom right now just blocks away from Ground Zero learning accounting tricks — confirming that, yes, this is fucked. The only good news is that my Professor is having a very hard time controlling the class and convincing anybody this matters.
Anybody else want out? Fuck the social security checks.http://freedomguerrilla.com

As I wipe away tears of both hysterical laughter and sheer terror from these posts, it becomes clear that a long chain of decisions got us here and, as Lynn S. so well points out above, it will not be one big thing that saves us. I started tapping our Sugar Maples this weekend and was again reminded of the stark contrast between the slow rhythms of nature and the deadly, hectic pace of modern techno-life. It seems we’re in a basket bobbing headlong for the nineteenth century. The good news is that the knowledge of how to live there is still around (I recommend the Foxfire Book for starters). Our host is correct about our military fragility, and how that could precipitate a nasty crash as opposed to a more survivable downward slide. We still play by the old rules: bomb the enemy’s supply lines and they’ll starve. The Taliban cut their own supply lines before the fight started, thus depriving our military of its traditional master stroke. I know a man whose plane was shot down in Afghanistan in WWII and traveled with the Mujahedeen. These guys can march barefoot in rough, icy terrain for thirty miles a day on less than 100 calories, and make their own weapons. It’ll be the same as Korea and Viet Nam. They’ll kick our asses out and we’ll claim victory.

Some of the Teabaggers are using the word “nullification” in reference to Federal laws and a minority (especially in Texas) are unabashedly using the word ‘secession’ in reference to their ‘right’ to leave the Union.
I post on Facebook and some of my FB friends are part of the Teabag movement. I’m not and it disgusts me. It appalls me that these FB friends actually favor nullifying Federal laws and believe they have a right to leave the Union. These folks hate Obama and the progressives. I’m no fan of his either, but that’s based mainly on ‘pro-life’ issues’, otherwise I’m not with them.
In terms of global warming, peak oil and the need to change the way we Americans live by focusing on redeveloping mass transit, walkable towns and revamping family farms and small towns, I’m on a different planet than they are. I’m so far out of their plain, that I’m immediately dismissed when I begin to talk about what I think needs to be done to save our Nation.
This Rebel talk of nullification and secession from the Teabaggers angers me. Our Union has problems (Hey, it did from day one on 07/04/1776), but breaking up or leaving the Union (which has no one right to) is not the solution. I myself don’t intend standby and let any of ’em leave.
So, rehearsal for a Civil War? To coin a phrase: “You betcha!”

The other elephant in the room is how the propaganda system permits only ineffectual, incoherent, and fragmented “opposition groups” to emerge. The Tea Party-niks are a perfect example. They could wind up as strawmen easily slain in the mainstream press. Or they could be a group of ninnies easily co-opted by the likes of factions within the RNC. Whatever the case, their “agenda” will be shunted off into oblivion once their votes are tallied.
More to the point, the propaganda system will not allow an analysis of the class antagonisms that put “too big to fail” institutions above all else. And why should we expect otherwise?
There’s no prospect for growth in profits from buying American labor. The capital owning class has no more need of us. Take a look at Haiti and New Orleans. That’s the future for people who have only their labor to sell.

Thank Aetna that the president is keeping this healthcare farce going. The insurance companies need this mandatory insurance clause or their earnings will suffer tremendously because those who pay for their own insurance are only one or two premium hikes away from saying fuck-it. The under forty year olds, especially, will drop their healthcare before they are caught using a six-month old phone/tv/music video player/adult book store/ map/ clock/ brain/ phallic symbol. God Bless Apple.

I know some think JHK is being too gloomy, that he is much too negative in his assessments, that “things” will work out, they always have. Well, I can understand that notion. On the surface it seems reasonable – how fast do “things” really change? On the other hand, I keep thinking about the guy who jumps out the 40th story window of a skyscraper. At the 10th story another guy yells out the window “How’s it going?” To which the jumper responds, “So far, so good!” The lesson in this vignette is that some dynamics are discontinuous, i.e. they can undergo an abrupt change which is not necessarily predictable from recent past performance.

Oh, and of course, we are for decentralized non-polluting energy production, coupled with real energy conservation.
Obama just announced that he is spending billions of taxpayer’s money to give to nuclear power plant builders.
That is NOT progressive!whitneyforgov.org/joomla/index.php

This week I got my first ever “poll” call, it was about heath care… the questions were specifically designed to get anyone taking the “poll” to answer in a very “Republican” manner. To my horror I saw Mitch McConnell on the Sunday shows obviously citing the poll I had taken last week…
My true feelings = get rid of three quarters of the military and provide an extremely strong single payer public option.
What the poll extracted from my “opinions” = I am brewing tea and preparing to burn a cross on the South Lawn of the White House while watching Glenn Beck…….
Our leaders aren’t even interested in finding out what we really think… the “opinion polls” are specifically designed to elicit an particular answer… not find out what we actually think. We are not being governed by serious people, why are we expecting serious results?

Too right on Jim–I smell blood.
As she is a better writer than me, I take the liberty of quoting from Gail Collins’ recent column in the NYTimes:
“Many Americans do not totally understand the concept of a metaphor.
“Another star of the conservative conference, Scott Brown, [Ted Kennedy’s heir]. . . .asked on Fox News about the I.R.S. office attack, he appeared to embrace the possibility that the pilot of the plane might have been one of his followers.
“And I don’t know if it’s related, but I can just sense, not only in my election but since being here in Washington, people are frustrated,” he said. “They want transparency.”
Let’s think this through. Andrew Joseph Stack III, the pilot, was a man with multiple hatreds, from Catholicism to unions, whose rage at the I.R.S. apparently began when the agency refused to allow him to declare his house a church for the purpose of avoiding taxes. And the end of the story is that he crashed a plane into a building, killing and injuring innocent people. Plus, he burned down his house. Where his wife and her daughter lived.
How many of you think this story would have come out differently if there was more transparency in Washington? That if only President Obama had followed through on that pledge to put the health care negotiations on C-Span, Stack and the I.R.S. offices would all be with us today?
When prodded by the interviewer, Brown agreed that sending a plane plowing into an office building was “extreme” and added, “You don’t know anything about the individual. He could have had other issues. Certainly, no one likes paying taxes, obviously.”
Tim Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota,“We should take a page out of her [Tiger Wood’s wife] playbook and take a 9-iron and smash the window out of big government in this country,” he urged.
The overall strangeness of this thought aside, consider the timing. An angry man had just smashed his airplane into an I.R.S. office in Austin, Tex., killing one federal employee, injuring others and breaking quite a few windows. Does this seem like the very best time to be encouraging people to assault government property? Pawlenty’s defenders will undoubtedly say that he did not want his listeners to literally grab a golf club and hit something. But it is my experience that many Americans do not totally understand the concept of a metaphor.”
. . .
Thanks to Gail Collins–didn’t hear much about this story from “serious” journalists.
Glad a Dem didn’t utter such words. I guess the patriotic mantle worn by Republicans is proof against what might normally be called inimical to democracy. Oh yeah and bring your guns to Yellowstone! It’s a good way to protect oneself.
And meantime, I think good and brave Bill Moyers is closer than he has ever been to despair, as he contemplates the ramifications of corporate free speech.
In another opinion piece in the NYTimes this weekend, it is suggested that we give up our quaint desire for our “meat” animals to live a decent life, and instead just breed them without feelings!
And in a talk on 2/21/10 on NPR, Stewart Brand told Scott Simon he was “all good” with Nuclear energy. “I’ve done a lot of research,” he claimed, “And radiation isn’t all that dangerous. The problems at Chernobyl were exaggerated . . . .and Three mile Island! Why it weren’t hardly nothing!” He recommended scattering “micro-reactors” across the landscape. . . .That doesn’t sound too dangerous, does it friends?
Sort of like “micro-breweries” you know.
On Sunday, 2/21/10, it was said that the administration is committing $54 billion to the nuclear industry; the $8 billion we all heard about was the opening salvo–this on the McLaughlin Group.
There is talk of putting 50 to 100 new plants online.
Not only are there the problems of waste and corporate immorality; to me, nuclear power, with its concentration of “power” in the literal and figurative sense, is incompatible with democracy. Too much power in the hands of a few. We should be following Scandinavian innovations re small roof wind turbines and solar panels for individual homes.
I could think of some ways I’d rather spend 54 billion.

Jim, the Tea Party is hardly a right wing monolith.
You’ve got mostly libertarians in there while the GOP furiously tries to co-opt their votes by selling them GOP bullshit. You’re fond of Texas Sharpshooter cites of the idiots with the “Gov’t hands off my Medicare” signs but you’re misrepresenting the rank-and-file of the movement. You’re engaging in echo chamber demagoguery and this sort of propaganda is beneath you.
CPAC booed the Paul win of the straw vote. He doesn’t stand for what they stand for.
Why don’t we see similar insurrection within the Democrap Party? At least some who used to self-identify as Repugnicons are willing to acknowledge that the Party they have subscribed to no longer represents their interests.

These lyrics from Crosby, Stills and Nash’s “Wooden Ships” come to mind: “Go, take your sister, then, by the hand / Lead her away from this foreign land / Far away, to where we might laugh again / We are leaving, you don’t really need us.” Guess we should set a course and go. . . .

WageL.,
Thanks for the “outburst”, I agree 100%.
I get an inkling that there are very few labels [that mean much] left to slap on political viewpoints. I suppose one could slip and call a blatant corporatist a “progressive”, if only because they might be labeled one in the press… over and over and over. ;o) Thus the ol’ Big Lie process is set in motion.
I don’t want to make too many excuses; so I’ll return to just saying thanks again. ;o)

I, too, wouldn’t call Obama progressive. How about Uncle Tom?
From the outset, I’m not pro-Obama. I believe the corporate US parties are both sides of the same coin, acting in collusion – look at the losing candidates the last elections, Kerry and McCain. Clearly unelectable. Was either outcome ever in doubt? Having said this, I have some sympathy for Obama. What’s he to do? Go on primetime TV and announce that the economy is shot, and go down in history as the man that brought about this century’s great depression?
He’s the classic guy holding onto a rising balloon. Trying to keep up the appearance of business as usual, to squeeze the last gasoline fumes out of the tank. Expecting him to do otherwise suggests that you believe the Democrats are the party of the people, rather than just a different mask for the same old group.
I’m doing the same myself. Working and paying down my mortgauge frantically, looking at my future options. (We just fixed up the basement so it can bring in some rental income.)
But in my shame, I’m not yet looking at alternate energy options. I can’t afford it, right now. Just like your president.

The blame game is about to start…”who the hell did this to us?! Who was it?!”. Just like among Germans in the 1920’s.
In more homogeneous countries (like Germany was then) it is easier to find scapegoats but this time there will be too many hate groups blaming each other for a nazi-style takeover.
USA breaking apart is one possibility with multiple fracturing lines (race, languages, republican/democrat, coasts/inland, north coast/south coast). It could happen with or without another civil war.

Jim,
I do enjoy reading many of your blogs, but really, a man of your intelligence needs to step out of your lefty positions and be intellectually honest on all fronts. I mean, you voted for Obama and really thought he would bring positive change?? That alone is enough to disqualify your intellect, although I don’t, since you do make some very good points, when your not batting for the left. On the other hand…The Tea Party movement is NOT right wing…IT’S AMERICAN ( Dem, Rep and Ind)!!! GLOBAL WARMING IS BULLSHIT and is the biggest hoax ever!!! That has been proven, so please don’t even bring that up! Al Gore should be in jail for all the jobs he cost people and the scam on this economy with his JUNK science. If weather was so affected by industry, then please explain the Ice Age and subsequent meltdown? That was due to carbon (people breathing) right?…spare me! As far as the supreme court ruling, it means jack…How about Soros and all the money he shovels to the left through “non profit”. No complaints there, huh?? In addition, Joe Stack wants his medicare and healthcare reform. These are hardly right wing positions. Jim, you’re a bright guy with some excellent points about the “big box stores” and lack of community,etc, but seriously be more objective . The Republicans spending was ridiculous, but Obama has tripled it in one year! Let’s be honest here fella. It’ll enhance the credibility of your writings as more and I do look forward to your next column, as they are always thought provoking, even if grossly incorrect at times.

I have some sympathy for the Tea Partiers. I agree they’re incoherent but the Tea Partiers are right that America is horribly served by its politicians and that the US federal government is incompetent beyond measure. The feds can’t touch anything without fubaring massively.
The financial crisis is nature’s way of telling you to put a collar and leash on federal institutions that were entrusted with management of the nation’s money supply and financial system, that could have acted to avert the crisis. They are beyond useless, they were at the root of the disaster and complicit in it.
The Tea Partiers are correct that politics is rotten to the core. The Democrats have both houses, the Presidency, they’ve had decades to think about revamping health care and still they managed to fuck it up completely. Beyond enriching Goldman Sachs, debauching federal finances and debasing the coin of the realm what was accomplished?
It seems to me there’s more than enough to get riled about and at least the Tea Partiers are speaking up.

Nice write up Jim. We are just starting to see the anger. Wait until the public finds out that there is NO money in the social security trust fund. Me and a few friends/relatives already have given up on seeing any of our money back. We want social security ended. Just pay anyone over 50 what they have paid in and the rest take the loss, but don’t have to be stolen from anymore. I am under 50 and would take the loss.
Instead what we will see is the GRA program. Another mandatory retirement program. Got to keep the Ponzi financed.
And then comes the regressive VAT tax that will give the economy another body blow. Watch Europe go down in flames to see what is in store for us. France is in chaos. Their media is under orders to not report on any riots that has more than 50 cars on fire. The whole continent is on strike. Overpaid union workers extorting more benefits.
The government has ate our breakfast and lunch, it is now coming after our dinner.

I’m fed up with the unending erroneous slurs on the vast majority of Tea Party people. They’re objecting to the same things that Jim refers to in his remarks about governmental policies and actions.
There is a difference between taxes and excessive amounts of taxes. There is a difference between rational government and Big Nanny State intrusiveness and control. Government spending is necessary in our system, but spending like drunken sailors on a spree is not necessary.
The police estimated some 35,000 people attended the Tea Party at the Alamo. A friend of mine was there: No political signs allowed. No political speech for or against either party occurred. Multi-ethnic. Ages from student to retiree. The focus was on the federal policies of taxation and spending.
Sorry, but no militias, no right-wing crazies (or left-wing crazies, either) and no racism.
I note that crazies of whatever sort can latch on to groups of whatever sort. After 3/4 of a century of watching people, I gay-rawn-damn-tee you that there are as many babbling idiots with progressives as with conservatives–but I have enough sense to know that they’re not representative of those groups. I regret that way too many folks don’t seem to have that much sense.
Jim’s gripes are the same as Tea Party gripes; he just uses different words and phrasings to say the same thing…
‘Rat

James, you really wrote a spot-on piece!! The Teabaggers are so misguided they cannot tell friend from foe. They don’t know that the powers behind the Teabagger movement are the same corporations that are ripping them off. Their hatred against the government, which in many cases, are taking care of their financial needs, such as S.S, Medicare, Medicaid, Prescription Drug Benefit, GI benefits, etc. are their friend and not foe.
So many Teabaggers don’t get it or understand the facts.
As you spoke about government programs that are really stimulus packages: the two occupations/wars, HLS, TSA, domestic spying contracts all are stimulus packages designed to pad the balance sheets and dividends of investors because these war profiteers, and non-productive corporate contracts, with little reverberation through the economy when compared to manufacturing real economy jobs, cannot make a profit without government support.
As you have written time and time again, what is needed is a sustainable economy building a sustainable society.http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

Hmmmm,
Mebbe the reality of a situation just “is”. How it’s dealt with is what gives it an emotional context. I certainly find the humor in JHK’s gloom, and vise versa. I see these posts as social and intellectual critique, dressed in engaging writing. Stringent attention to detail be damned; it’s really not that important, I would guess. The warning is. Absolutism is not going to help anybody; being a “generalist” is where the rubber meets the road (or where the hoof meets the gravel).
Seeing as I’m off on a demented ramble here, what pisses me off the most (besides the awful waste of resources), is that those idiots “in charge” can’t get their heads/ideologies around a semi-managed contraction/collapse. They don’t seem to understand that choices based on reality are becoming further constrained as each day goes by (and the commonwealth is further depleted/indebted).
…Uh-oh, perhaps they DO understand, and feel that a raging full-on Mad Max scenario (along with a few scattered bio-weapons) would bring the population of the rabble down to a “manageable” number and nature.
Unlike those “in charge”, however, I won’t be doing my planning based on my delusions or false hope. Surviving long enough to try to put together something to sustain the kids is my goal. Whether “the gummit” is there to help [or not] is not going to be much of a consideration. Interference is the sole future factor, but I can’t deal with that until it kills me (basically).
Sorry for the ramble;
Rave On!

There’s no question the U.S. is very broken, and is transitioning to what we’ve called Third World. There’s ‘hysteresis’ involved, or the ‘phantom limb’ effect—a limb is amputated, but for weeks or months, the individual swears that it’s still there. Hysteresis means that external conditions change, but the system (American citizens) doesn’t react right away. Another analogy is the Roadrunner cartoons, where the coyote runs off a cliff, but keeps going, then looks down, and woosh down he goes. At least these analogies are how I view where we are right now.

I’d say the working American is definitely being economically euthanized by our banks, and corporations, with the approval of Congress. There has to be a reason, because once our incomes, savings, retirement, and unemployment benefits are gone, we are gone. Why would this be occurring? What is the policy behind this?

Even the teabaggers have not realized they and the country have run off the cliff, still propelled horizontal, with a huge fall to come. Civil war, or just a chaotic crash ahead with the top 1% and the banks taking the chips and running. In a way, some of the teabagger events, and pundit commentary seem like a weather man talking about the latest tornado, but he doesn’t see the giant asteroid about to hit the country. We can’t PR our way out of this mess. Ask anyone who is unemployed and living off unemployment benefits that are about to run out.

What we have here is a trout in the milk. But we’re told there is no trout.

Oh and I just wanted to say I agree with your model of future living. Walking to work, post office, etc. We grow our own veggies in the backyard. The FIRE economy is a dead man walking (hopefully). End the 2 wars already. Get out of Japan. They don’t want our bases there anyway. More rail and less cars/planes. Values. Tiger Woods is a poster child for the decline of America. No values. If your great at hitting a little white ball with a long stick you are a hero? And forgiven? Fuck Tiger Woods.
But I still look at the Tea Party movement as good in that it brings about a smaller government. Maybe we can repeal the Homeland Security Act. We need more things done on a local level. Abolish income taxes and the Federal Reserve. We got along better before we had them.

> comment above that the US is very broken
The New Poor?nytimes.com/2010/02/21/business/economy/21unemployed.html
Call them the new poor: people long accustomed to the comforts of middle-class life who are now relying on public assistance for the first time in their lives — potentially for years to come.
What’s despicable is the non stop lies and spin interleaved with hopium from Wash DC and MSM

I’ve been reading about Igor Panarin, the Russian intelligence analyst who (in 1998) predicted that the USA would collapse in 2010. Actually, sometime between June and July, when the country will enter a process that has it ultimately disintegrating into six parts.
Depending on what mood I’m in at any given time, I tend to regard Panarin as either a fruitcake (how on earth could he tell all that based on economic data?) or as a man whose job it is to tell lies that destabilize places. Lets’ face it, when your resume states career KGB officer and information warfare expert, you ain’t going to convince me that you are on the side of the angels.
But. . . but. . . can it really be coming down? Five months’ time? Can things really be that bad? Didn’t it take the Soviet empire years to finally crumble? Aren’t the teabaggers just a group of wealthy Republicans, or controlled by them, trying to get media time for their mantra that the only thing holding everyone back from that shiny new SUV is all the taxes they have to pay? (Military taxes good, welfare taxes bad.)
Got to hold my hand up and say that while I believe JHK is correct in what he’s saying, IMHO he is bringing the timeframe forward, and so is this KGB guy.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Panarin#Prediction_of_the_USA.27s_collapse_in_2010
(Apologies if this has been done to death, but I’m quite new here.)

Greetings,
I’m not worried about the Teabaggers because they, for the most part, appear to be old and fat. It seems that the same cognitive dissonance that demands government to “stay out of medicare” must also promote a lifestyle of couch sitting and McDonalds.
If they want to leave the Union then they’ll need to raise a Clone Army or something because these guys couldn’t walk more than 100 yards.
I say we give a few hundred of them the David Koresh treatment and see how well they like that. I hear that fat really burns well.

Stop drinking the kool aid. You think ANY politician is telling you the truth??? The INDEPENDENT inspector general, Barofsky basically stated that what Obama and his ilk have mind is UNSUSTAINABLE!!!! Get off the left/right mindset. The party is over…Social Security…DONE!….MEDICARE…DONE! Life as we knew it…Done! Time to take care of yourself with help from neighbors and family, the way it used to be, before that abomination named FDR screwed this country up with social programs, deficit spending and selling our souls completely out to the bankers! BTW…see who Wall Streer donated more too…that’s right…Dems! Bernie Madoff…Democrat!! Wake up, the old tired rhetoric, is just that!

Is there anybody out there…echoes…It seems we all like to comment, but do we read each other’s? Does Jim?
Here’s my first comment and I apologize in advance for any incomprehensible rambling or typos.
I’m a longtime follower of Jim’s commentary. I would like to speak personally.
Jim is a truly brilliant man, he is very well read, has an incredibly diverse knowledge base (many in CNU absolutely adore him, a group whose esteem I’d love to have) all (impressively) with very limited formal education (sorry Brockport).
I made the mistake, however, of not picking up earlier on how Jim’s own sad life choices and conditioning (apparent if you follow his personal history and pick up on his troubles) have created a paranoia and profound negativity within him that leads him to confuse his own sadness about how he thinks the world works with the way the world actually works, making him a pessimist and a faulty oracle.
This is tragic (a word he so often uses) and is unfortunately contrary to how he used to like to describe himself as being an optimist/or happy or how he more recently says that he’s an actual-ist (paradoxically).
I guess, like Jim said, we all follow our own narratives (I think in a reference after finishing the Black Swan book) and perhaps this is part of the “show biz” that he described during the Rochester Japanese dinner clip on the podcast, part of (slowly) selling books to employ him without “having to kiss up to a boss” (Home From Nowhere, What I Live For chapter), though it isn’t helping him to get that Saratoga dream house back any sooner.
Jim, you’re so talented and we could really use your sharp intellect and creative ideas, but until you stop confusing your experience in the world with how the world really is, I will (sadly) only follow your ideas with caution.

The first comment was right on. Erich Fromm’s Escape from Freedom is a must-read right now. It explains the rise of the Nazis and how it could happen elsewhere.
When a man realizes he can’t actualize his freedom in the way he desires — that is, say, he can’t drive his hummer to Jack in the Box because gas is $9 per gallon or he can’t afford cable because his landscaping business just went under — freedom becomes frightening.
So he tries “escapes from” freedom and supports the likes of Sarah Palin.
What Fromm termed “positive freedom” is the freedom to take advantage of freedom in the way you want. Negative freedom, on the other hand, what our Hummer-driving fast-food patron above experiences, is the opposite.

“Progressives”?
“Progressives” my hind end!!!!!!!!
Hows about liars, cheats and theives.
Start where ever you choose:
Obama, Geithner, Emanuel, Axelrod, Pelosi, Reid, Schumer, Dodd, Bawney Fwank, and on and on and on.
“Progress” your behinds right on out of D.C. please, and the sooner the better.
Scanning through these posts is really depressing. Aside from being depressed about the coming catastrophes of PO, financial melt down, etc., I mean, which I agree with most of you folks on. I mean depressing on a political level. It is a shame that we are so far apart on some things. Ideology is so different. Might take a “war” to get that straightened out.
You slam the TEA parties but have you been to one? I would encourage you to physically go to one. Listen. You may not agree with everything, but you can speak at the local TEA parties and express your own opinons. Could help. And, FYI, I have only been to one, for a very short time, because it was happening on the court house steps when I was leaveing. You could call it a “walk by”. I stopped for a short while to listen. I know for a fact that I am absolutely Taxed Enough Already. I do not need more taxes.
Point is we have got to find to find some common ground somewhere that “works” for all of us. The goofy ideas of all those folks I listed above is NOT going to “work”.
Lastly, it was part of the deal when the Great State of Texas joined the Union that they could, in fact, seceed. It may even be in their constitution.
Good luck to us all.

JHK’s audience is more the Tea party set than he would like to imagine. The Peak Oil movement is largely owned by the right-wing crazies who populate the Tea parties.
There is a reason why The Oil Drum (and like-minded blogs such as The Automatic Earth) spent months crying over the election of President Barack Obama, and it is a sad comment on the character of the movement.
Not that the Peak Oil movement has ever actually cared about solving the Peak Oil problem. The movement is wholly owned and governed by the American Petroleum Institute … a fact so well-established that the Peak Oil blogs boast about their close alignment with the American Petroluem Institute.
These people are looking out for the best interests of the oil industry and their own paychecks. Their desire to save civilization from catastrophe is insincere at best. See in particular The Oil Drum’s traditional denialist viewpoint regarding Global Warming, a controversy which recently exploded on the blog to such an extent that people who do take science seriously and recognize the danger of the threat walked away since the oil industry viewpoint was being promoted and propagandized at all costs by the oil industry shills who operate the blog.
So when JHK criticizes and mocks the TEA party he is mocking his own audience. Needless to say, people who responded predictably to the criticism.
No one is so blind as the willfully blind.
The world’s problems are bigger than the USA. The world’s problems are now bigger than humankind.
We’re standing at the edge of the precipice and there is little reason to imagine that either civilization or humankid will survive the catastrophes which have already begun.
I’m not opposed to this outcome. The Universe isn’t losing much when it loses humankind.
Nature is a survivor and it will survive the human catastrophe. The Earth is going to stay alive, beautiful, flourishing with life, and this is the only acceptable outcome to the human extinction event.
My loyalty is to the living Earth …flickr.com/dmathew1
Humankind was a lost cause from the beginning … as even the Bible declares in Genesis 6:5-6.
Humankind goes extinct but life will go on. There is life after humankind.

Because Mr K is a pessimist doesn’t mean he isn’t right, maybe his own life choices/events give him a more accurate take on what’s happening than more optimistic people. The stock markets are full of smiling, striding bulls and optimists. Well, the Nasdaq and Dow are roughly where they were ten years ago, we’ve had a tech bust, a telecom bust, a real estate bust. So much for optimism.

I’ll reply to you, then (probably the least qualified person here. . .)
I can’t, in all honesty, criticise Jim for his life choices. The only way to get experience is to make mistakes (you learn very little when things go right. . . and you actually get into a rut, trying to repeat your success.)
I’ve made some bad decisions, thankfully – without the pain and depression, I’d be killing my brain with alcohol and television right now, rooting for the saviours of my own political party. I think that we are all here (right, left and independent) because we feel painfully out of place in a showbiz society, and have a yearning for some kind of old-fashioned conservative values – before conservatism became prisoner to the corporations.
As the Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko once commented to Bob Dylan: “Broken hope unites people rather than hope. . .”
We are the broken hope people – we all wanted to be part of the glittering new world order.

Firstly, no one knows the future; we’re all just taking a swing at it, some with a major league bat, most with a pick-up bat.
I think Jim’s view of things is much more clear eyed than most but I have no confidence in any solution proposed by anyone. Solutions just lead to unintended consequences that create more problems that require more solutions.
The answer to most of our so-called problems is to first recognize the true nature and purpose of problems. Secondly, it’s us. We are the problem. Therefore, we are the only workable, worthwhile, and long lasting solution.
I’m at that point in my favorite book where Jesus, knowing that in a few days he’s going to be rejected by the people, speaks with force and clarity about the destruction of Jerusalem to come. They, the Jewish leaders and priestly class, have conspired to kill Jesus just as they have killed the prophets of the past. By their actions they have forfeited their covenant with God and rejected the answer the olden prophets have foretold, thereby sealing their fate with the Romans. We likewise have sealed our fate as we continue to seek “solutions” to problems outside of ourselves; problems that are there only to remind us of what we yet have to do.
What each one of needs now is the religion OF Jesus rather than a religion about Jesus.

The USA has an enormous land mass. There are areas that are considered unsuitable for farming, yet are suitable for hemp cultivation. Hemp would fix a lot of problems. It requires minimal infrastructure investment, would produce local jobs, provides food products, raw material for clothing and other such products, and the oil can be turned into biodiesel. Ok, it may mean the new jobs created aren’t what a college educated person may expect, but this is reality. Couple Bio diesel with the mighty yet tiny engine and you will be off foreign oil in no time. You can do it. It is not lost. The people who read this blog understand whats going on and you need to be the heros that are needed at this time.
Unless action is taken, the united states and pretty much every other industrialised nation will simply dissolve, in a brutal way, from fixation on crude oil. There are plenty of ways to offset the oil decline, but every day counts now, and the work should have begun with Carter. This has been many years in the making.
I am from the UK, and have worked in the U.S. Its a lovely country, and if you can go back to your original values and use of nature, you will be reborn i am sure.
I hope you do it and set an example on how to come good from a tough situation.

This Rebel talk of nullification and secession from the Teabaggers angers me. Our Union has problems (Hey, it did from day one on 07/04/1776), but breaking up or leaving the Union (which has no one right to) is not the solution. I myself don’t intend standby and let any of ’em leave.
I don’t understand the violent reaction by some here to the very idea of secession. Jim himself fully expects the nation to fragment into a series of progressively smaller and smaller nation-states, as the exportable black stuff starts running out.
Secession could be a win-win for both “Progressives” (however you choose to define and that) and “Conservatives” (mainly referring to the right-wing reactionaries who hate all government programs except for the military and social programs *they* benefit from).
The hard right could govern the way they’ve always wanted: ban abortions, ban unions, reverse environmental laws, set evangelical Protestanism as the official state religion, revoke voting rights for non-whites and women, eliminate all social spending (except of course for spending on old conservative white people), escalate the various Wars for “Freedom” we have going on all over the world, etc.
The truly progressive left could finally govern the way *they* want to: universal single-payer health insurance, publicly financed elections, genuine banking regulation/reform, reinstituting progressive income tax, more renewable energy, better environmental protections, decriminalizing ‘soft’ drugs, etc.

Too bad…a year or two ago there might have been considerable discussion this morning on this blog about the fuel cell profiled last night on “60 Minutes” with observations from people who actually know something about the topic, yes…surprisingly enough, people like that use to come here.
Now….nothing but political shouting

Nice piece Jim,
While all the parties are clamoring to get growth back on its feet, isn’t growth the underlying problem exacerbated by the economy that has developed based on growth. We need a sustainable economy based on a stable population in a zero growth environment relying on efficiency to propel standard of living. There are currently no such economic/population examples in the world right now.
Or are there??????
Nathan

Here in the Great Garden State, we have Sen Lautenberg advocating a bike path between Camden and Philly. Have you been to Camden? Would you ride a bicycle in one of the most corrupt and dangerous cities in the country? By the way, the price tag for this bike path is $23 million. We can name it the “Progressive Party” Bike Path. Hopefully the $23 million includes the issuance of Kevlar vests for all riders on this peddle path to Hell.
If we ever end these wars, what will happen to all those soldiers coming home to high unemployment? Soldiers and Marines trained and experienced in urban combat. I believe there was an influx of combat hardened veterans with high unemployment after WWI in a country called Germany. We all know what that lead to.

Dale,
I’m the guy who watched 60 minutes and have the Bloom Box on my mind. And yes, this blog is waaaay to political today. Only a few good encouraging posts. I wish it was JHK’s job to give us the drumbeat of doom, and then the bloggers job to share our possible solutions, to give some real world examples of what IS possible. I’d be fine without another mention of Tea Party for the rest of the day…
On the solution side, I have been working on high mass thermal storage with sand. Solar thermal collectors can provide a good amount of heat through radiant flooring in the winter. However, if we harvest energy in the summer when it is more plentiful, we can store it in a giant insulated “sand box” under a building and save the energy/heat to use in the winter. or not. Maybe the bad guys (aka kids?) will come and throw rocks at my evacuated tubes to try to break them. (my anti-solar friends actually suggested this would happen)

Thanks for another insightful and intelligent blog posting, can’t get through my mondays without it.
BTW – Are you going to be visiting the burning man festival this summer? They seem to be getting your ideas for the modern metropolis.burningman.com/art_of_burningman/bm10_theme.html
Sure there’ll be plenty of tattoos in evidence among the hedonistic folks there but you will be a lot more welcome around them than with the ignorant intolerant racist gun toting tea party nascar football crowd. By end of summer we may all need to get away
Peace

Very well put! Sooner or later the herd of sheeple will wake up in anger. All you have to do is look at any statistic and see just what is being represented. One year a buddy of mine and I were shocked to see a slight .50 cent reduction in our cost of living allowence. With gas prices rising, the cost of food going right through the roof,we decided to visit the Consumer Price Index. As this is the sole source for keeping tabs on stuff we gave it a look. Oh wow ! The cost of Food and Fuel wasn’t included in this quarters caculations, thus reflecting what looked good on paper as a decline in the cost of living. Some might call that “smoke&mirrors” but I prefer to call it a LIE. But the sheeple feast on it.

Thank you, Nathan, for pointing out what is so important.
We can’t continue to grow. We have to live sustainably.
I would like to again bring up my idea about paying people to be sterilized.
This would do a lot to solve the unwanted part of our population, and relieve the burden on the wanted part.
It is insane to continue to produce unwanted babies when our environment is under such stress.

“The Tea Party-niks are a perfect example. They could wind up as strawmen easily slain in the mainstream press. Or they could be a group of ninnies easily co-opted by the likes of factions within the RNC. Whatever the case, their “agenda” will be shunted off into oblivion once their votes are tallied.”
Gregg, you make a good point here. All one needs to do is look at the support behind the Tea Party movement to see where things are headed. Sarah Palin´s involvement is no accident. Rupert Murdoch is Palin´s key enabler along with advisers such as William Kristol, Dan Blumenthal (resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute), Randy Schuenemann (former foreign policy adviser to McCain) and Sam Schulman, (resident publicist for the American Enterprise Institute). Sarah was joined on the Tea Party Convention podium by Mr. Joseph Farah, publisher of World Net Daily. Can you say co-opted? But by whom you say? Connect the dots…….

“However, if we harvest energy in the summer when it is more plentiful, we can store it in a giant insulated “sand box” under a building and save the energy/heat to use in the winter.”
What you’re talking about is “annualized thermal inertia”. Only a few supposed crack-pots have worked on such things – Mike Oehler in north Idaho, Sepp Holzer in Austria, and others – but I personally think it’s the way to go.
If we go back to burning wood for heat and power we will face a deforestation collapse in less than a generation, even in this mighty country. Above all we need NEW solutions, like ATI, or heating shower water with active compost piles. These solutions of course have stacked functions and integrate with an appropriate idea of sustainable. At the end of winter, when the compost is no longer hot enough for showers, it’s done and ready to go on the garden.
In a WOFATI-type building (the ATI in wofati is the above-mentioned annualized thermal inertia), the roof is also available to increase garden space. No more house footprint cutting into productive arable footage. I’ve got a small tea plantation planned for the roof of my family room add-on, to sell as a high-demand cash crop in the tea-loving southeast. And the addition will also serve as our geothermal air conditioning unit. Run an intake pipe underground out through the back garden, set up a glass greenhouse on the other side of the house (east in our case to get air flow moving early in the day), vent it appropriately, and pull cool air in via convection from the shady, and fragrant, garden.
Set lower than the rest of the house, the wofati addition could also act as a heat pump in winter. Coupled with a high-efficiency wood stove or rocket stove, one could theoretically heat and cool a house in the blazing south with just the windfall from the garden.

WageLaborer said:
I went to the first tea party in my town.
GOOD FOR YOU ! ! ! TRY AGAIN.
No, I wasn’t allowed to speak.
DID YOU ASK IF YOU COULD SPEAK?
And they were very hateful people.
*HATEFUL*? DOES THAT MEAN THAT YOU DID NOT AGREE WITH WHAT THEY WERE SAYING?
I know a bunch of folks who do the TEA parties and they are all decent folks who love America and only want things to get better. Mostly want JOBS and pay less taxes. How about you?
Unfortunately, most of them don’t have a clue about PO.
I know everyone on this blog HATES Palin and I don’t care for her being the “face” of the movement at this time either. Having said that, she might write notes on her hand but she doesn’t have to read straight from a teleprompter and I don’t think she flat out lies.
By the way, the republicans DO have a health care plan. They presented it to Obama at the meeting in Boston where he chastized them for not agreeing with him and he basically just set it aside. They will present it again on Thursday on tv. Be sure to watch so you can see how much attention it gets then.
I missed 60 Minutes about the fuel cell. I will go over to TOD to read about that.
Good luck to us all.

Somebody mentioned that they unfortunately hadn’t gotten started on alternative power yet.
Might I suggest an aspect of this lamentation that perhaps hasn’t been scrutinized?
What about instead of spending thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of dollars on a power system that relies on non-renewable resources, especially rare earth elements in the case of solar, and is destined to break down eventually, that the really sane approach is probably just radical conservation?
I’ve seen estimates that we could cut energy use in this country by 80% without even affecting our standard of living!
As a quick example, we are replacing our side-by-side EnergyStar refrigerator with a small chest freezer coupled with an external thermostat to maintain appropriate interior temperatures. Because of the extra insulation in a freezer compared to a fridge, and the chest instead of door configuration, it will use 1/40 of the power that our “EnergyStar” fridge consumes.
Roughly.
If we can duplicate savings like these through low-tech and behavioral innovations with all of our power use, what’s the point of dwelling on alternative power systems at all?
Surely a regional power plant is more efficient than manufacturing wind turbines and solar panels for everyone!
Tripp out.

“Maybe we can repeal the Homeland Security Act.”
This was put in place to protect “the top” from the rest of us, But if you are silly enough to point this out, oh never mind…http://www.hypertiger.blogspot.com

“I’d say the working American is definitely being economically euthanized by our banks, and corporations, with the approval of Congress. There has to be a reason, because once our incomes, savings, retirement, and unemployment benefits are gone, we are gone. Why would this be occurring? What is the policy behind this?”
antimatter, It´s really pretty simple. Empires rise and fall and this one´s in the falling stage. While the goodies were rolling in for almost everybody, there was almost no complaint about the methods used to get those goodies. Now that the goodies are running out, the average American is confused about why. The chickens are coming home to roost. The piper´s got to be paid. No more ´trickle down economics´. It´s time to face the music and dance.

One curious parallel I’ve noticed in various permutations of both the “doom” and “salvation” schools of future thought….is how they are so frequently “just over the horizon”. Just as PO is either now or near, so too are such technologies as the Bloom box and versions of fusion which have been suggested to be very near at hand as well. I’m not sure what to make of this exactly. It could be an example of the need for both to exist psychologically, and therefore they do and always will, remaining “just over the horizon”, or conversely, perhaps the technologies always do arise just in time. I suspect the former, but I wouldn’t rule out the later as a possibility either.
I suspect inventive half steps (or tenth steps) such as trippticket or solar guy mentioned, that could never be described as solutions per se, will be a big part of any adaptation to a more resource constrained future. Therefore, I suspect dramatic declines will, based on models which occurred in the past such as the Incas, have to be considered far less likely in the vastly more technological world of this era. Simply put, we are far more able to adapt then our ancient ancestors were, and thus any decline will likely occur more slowly or disaster averted numerous times along the way.
From a longer term perspective it might well be man’s salvation to have something like JHK’s “Long Emergency” occur, just to keep us from destroying ourselves, before we evolve far enough to loose the desire for such destruction.
One thing is for sure, you don’t have to go any further than this blog to see that we still have a long way to go.

And I think the bit about the chickens coming home to roost is important. Literally. If you have room, get some chickens. You’ll figure out how to really use them to your benefit as you go. I’m always glad to talk about the multifarious benefits of chickens in the garden. But for starters, enjoy the eggs!

“I’ve seen estimates that we could cut energy use in this country by 80% without even affecting our standard of living!”
=========================================
Hummm….couple of years ago I was suggesting that declines in the 20-25% range could be easily digested. even in the short term. (and was wildly attacked here for doing so) Claims of 80% seem pretty optimistic to me however. But one could argue all day about how to define “standard of living”, and I’m not interested in that sort of discussion.
Likewise, I would suggest that your dismissal of fuel cells is more a limit to your imagination, or a philosophical desire for “low tech” energy conservation solutions than any true reflection of the technologies value, or do you know something the rest of us don’t?
I’m a whore that way, whatever works is fine with me. If we could find energy efficient ways to keep the current lifestyle going, I have no moral compulsion to change it.

What WAGELABORER and others said. I second that (or third or fourth or whatever) heartily. Jim, please don’t refer to Obama or anyone in his government as progressives. The term will be ruined like “liberal” has been. Hardly any real progressive ever thought Obama was one. We just figured there was a tiny hope of moving in a different direction, a hope that has been pretty well snuffed out. If you must call the current crew something, call them “neoliberals.”

Sarah Palin is the Martha Stewart of American Politics. Like Martha, Sarah’s public appearances have a glossy, inoffensive quality that legions of inattentive tv zombies have grown to love. Aside from some of her more controversial views on abortion and religion, Palin’s speeches nearly always focus on the evils of big government and high taxes just like every other GOP presidential hopeful since 1980. Throw in that perfect smile and Midwestern good looks and you’ve got the perfect candidate for a nation of overfed clowns,

Don’t bash the baggers. They got off the couch. Read your history it takes a bunch of John Browns,Joseph Stacks,Thomas Paines et al/aliae to get the revolution going. This is revolution my friends make no mistake. As JHK alluded; people will start pushing back a la Stack. Gubment will false flag a mall incident or similar to collapse economy to cover the fact that it’s already toast, call in the TROOPS Martial Law away we go…. But ultimately they will fail.As the pictures of the Banksters and Polyticians go out on the net and twitter, the French Revolution will look like a TEA PARTY. Buy some rope there’s still hope!

“I would like to again bring up my idea about paying people to be sterilized,” the government official said gazing into the eyes of
Wagelaborer’s mother. “Get off my fucking porch”, was her reply.
Which of course resulted in the birth of Wagelaborer and her stooopid fucking rants! (Almost makes me FOR sterilization…in certain instances. ALMOST.)

“…call in the TROOPS.”
Please. The troops are the sons and daughters of US. The TROOPS are going to get all “marshall law” on their countrymen because a group of assholes gets biddy at Walmart? Me no think so.

With regards to Jim’s second paragraph, the way politicians are owned by the powerful and the corporations has formed a bottleneck restricting the kind of rational change Obama campaigned for, changes focussed on what is good for the population.
I just read an interesting commentary from Bob Schieffer, hardly a radical, who explains the simplicity of the current owned ppoltical system, better than anything I have read before. See “Sorry, Politicans Dance Cards are Full” cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/21/ftn/main6228685.shtml?tag=nl.e875.
It is readily apparent that the famous movie, “Mr Smith Comes to Washington” would be perceived as a fantasy of sorts if done today. Just how would a modern day Mr. Smith ever hope to get his message across to electors without a massive bank roll? Perhaps the movie was equally a work of fantsty back in the 1940’s, but at least the majority of Americans had faith in their system, and that seems to be washed out today. And, without unity, what can any nation achieve? What nation can even survive?
This is a crucial issue. Once a significant majority believe the government is rigged against them, the door opens to chaos and revolt. Just ask France’s King Louis 16th or the Romanov family of Russia about that. So, expect to see growing extremes of left and right wingers controlling the public space. Tea baggers on one side and marxists on the other.
Canada had an historic brush with “owned” politicians, back in the 19th century, our first prime minister, a hero though he was, lost an election after it was revealed he had accepted large sums of money from the same railroad his government had lavishly subsidized with tax money and ceded large land grants. Today, no Canadian corporation or union can donate to a political party and even individuals are limited to an annual donation of just $1,200. So, perhaps the reaction from our early brushes with bought off politicians served us well. And, I am glad our elections are short (45 days from start of campaigning to the election) and relatively cheap in advertising terms. It is rare for a federal politician to spend more than $150,000 in a campaign.

asoka-herself sez:
“Can you cite some credible source for the claim Obama has tripled spending over Bush?”
Read on Missy:
“After harshly criticizing President Bush for running $3.3 trillion in deficits over eight years, President Obama’s budget would run $7.6 trillion in deficits over what would be his eight years in the Oval Office.[3] Moreover, President Obama would run up more debt over his eight years than all other Presidents in American history–from George Washington through George W. Bush–combined. As a result of these deficits, net interest spending would reach $840 billion in 2020.”
More than all Presidents combined. BWA HA HA HA HA HA!
Source here:heritage.org/research/budget/wm2787.cfm

“This would do a lot to solve the unwanted part of our population, and relieve the burden on the wanted part.”
But what about you? You’d still be here and I don’t want you. How would those of us who don’t want you, get rid of you? I mean we have rights too.

“But one could argue all day about how to define “standard of living”,
Is leaning over into your fridge instead of reaching in hurting your standard of living?
There’s a 97.5% reduction in energy use to start us off. You’re up.

asoka-herself sez:
“No, the Democrats’ health care plan has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office. Not only does the health reform plan pay for itself … it reduces the deficit.”
Please. Read on:
“CBO says Obama’s health plan not detailed enough to score
By Jordan Fabian – 02/22/10 02:55 PM ET
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said Monday that it cannot score President Barack Obama’s health reform proposal because it lacks enough detail.
The White House claims that the president’s proposal will reduce the budget deficit by $100 billion over the next 10 years and by about $1 trillion over the second decade by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse and cutting “government overspending.”
But the CBO said it is not able to verify those claims. Here is more from the CBO’s Director’s Blog:
Although the proposal reflects many elements that were included in the health care bills passed by the House and the Senate last year, it modifies many of those elements and also includes new ones. Moreover, preparing a cost estimate requires very detailed specifications of numerous provisions, and the materials that were released this morning do not provide sufficient detail on all of the provisions. Therefore, CBO cannot provide a cost estimate for the proposal without additional detail.”
Full story here:thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/82709-cbo-says-obamas-health-plan-not-detailed-enough-to-s…
Please asoka-herself, try and have a clue before you open your pie hole.

With all that is going on your article reminds me of 2011 Obama’s Coup Fails (google that title I forgot the link). It is an online game that really isn’t one. It is a front for the Tea Party Movement and if you read the first page it asks you the reader if it is a game or reality.
President Obama will go down in history as the worst President ever. America is on the brink and God help us all if there is ever a real Revolution. The citizens of the U.S. are not like Iran. We are armed and well armed. If anything is tried after some fake ‘crisis after crisis’ as predicted by many, even in the game, then all hell will break loose. Source: (I found the link) usofearth.com/2011-obamas-coup-fails.php

JKH points out the blunders of the Tea Party, but the fact that they are bringing attention to the corruption of both Rep. and Dem. is healthy.
Sarah Palin is a power hungry is a buffoon. I know George Bush 2 was not the sharpest tool in the shed, but she makes Bush look like a Ginzu knife.
Neither party knows what thrift or fiscal responsibily is. Rep. had their chance and they blew it.
We can’t afford health care
We can’t afford social security
We can’t afford two wars and a wasteful military
We can’t afford wasteful state and local gov’t spending
We can’t afford grants, entitlements, all the bullshit waste that goes on.
OK all the rant above doesn’t do anything…
Real actions in your personal life does.
Embrace Thrift
Create your own full time income or part time income. Don’t be to dependent on a job or company.
Grow some of your own food. Raised beds,patio, wherever.
Turn off lights if you are not in the room.
Payoff your credit cards.
Drive a used car, no car loans.
Just cut you household expenses so that you are not a victim but more in charge of your life.

I was thinking the other day about our overall economy, and I saw something that probably most people haven’t. We actually have the makings of another underground economy that the Corporate punks may have overlooked. We have a mass of unemployed people with all kinds of skills that could be made into another level of economy that the corporations could not begin to infiltrate or manipulate, not unless the former middle class and lower class let them. We could start another class of people who would, I hope, buy and sell to one and another in this economy and fore go the established economy that we have another. If we utilized that economy, the corporations would starve from the lack of money. Now, if we could just get everyone together and make this, “underground” economy work.

The (ugh) Marxist Russians have de-minimist health care that includes railway clinics on many of the passenger trains that operate across the rail system. In America we are seeing bus clinics, like the “bookmobiles” that brought library service to rural and suburban areas.
Thru the Oil Interregnum, as diesel fuel problems impact rubber tire transport, US railway lines abandoned since the 1950’s will be rebuilt. Many lines will be brought back to service by the large merged rail lines who will see traffic generation benefits as trucking shrinks.
Reformed Army/Guard Railroad Operating & Maintenance Battalions will “adopt” strategic dormant rail corridor and assist with initial work, until private sector rail operator is in control. Local energy generation for commercial and residential electricity is quietly under way now, many Americans are not Doomers, you see.
“ELECTRIC WATER” is a useful read about off-the-shelf applications for local energy & mobility enhancement. There is an interesting Chapter & verse in the Bible: Daniel 4 V.15. Read it in context of the Emporer of Persia’s dream. Old prophesies oten have more than one apllication. It could apply to our USA; the great tree that offered sustenance to the world is brought low, destruction prevented by bands of Iron.
Railways, whether brought forth by stretching scripture or by the foresight of present day local contractors and corporate leaders, are important in the Peaking oil solution set. “Parallel Bar Therapy”…
A website “spv.co.uk” offers Railway Atlas Map Volumes of all the US rail lines past & present. Doomers fearful of blood clots from too much rest, can get copy of rail maps in their respective locale, and see which dormant rr line nearby would make a difference when the trucks don’t run so often. So easy even Jim Kunstler could do it: Sort of like the “Daily Grunt”, or “Eyesore of the Month”, except, describe location and history of a dormant branchline somewhere. Start in upstate New York, Jim?
Another source for info on the old rail network is “THE OFFICIAL GUIDE OF THE RAILWAYS” capitalised to be forever etched in minds of anyone who got this far in my rr rant. See you down the line…

Does anyone think that the U.S. Constitution is propaganda? Shame on you. Everyone needs to get a copy and really study it. Then, everyone will be pissed off mad and ready to kick Washington where it counts. Lets go!

“Somebody mentioned that they unfortunately hadn’t gotten started on alternative power yet. . . What about instead of spending thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of dollars on a power system that relies on non-renewable resources, especially rare earth elements in the case of solar, and is destined to break down eventually, that the really sane approach is probably just radical conservation?”
It was me.
My wife and I replaced the appliances, which were on the way out anyway, with more energy efficient models – most recently the furnace. We’ve been putting in draft excluders and insulation, and use a chest freezer. Biggest efficiency for us is not running the heating at night, and cutting down the heat during the day – we run the house at a maximum of 20 deg. C through the winter. Visitors wear a sweater the second time around.
We have one car, a ’99 Toyota Corolla. I ride the bus to work, and walk to the stores nearby. I refuse to watch TV, so I missed the fuel cell item – I’m not entirely sure I trust 60 Minutes. Haven’t they been caught out swallowing PR spin, particularly on medical matters?
I’ve started out on growing food, in a very small way, but I’ve had to cut right down on my composting because of a problem with rats. I’m going to be more ambitious this year.
Personally, I’d like to install solar panels on the roof to heat our water.
I’m years behind you guys, but IMHO there is no way, right now, to use alternate energy sources to run contemporary homes at contemporary levels. The answer, as I see it, is passive solar construction – granted, not everyone has a south-facing lot – because home heating is the biggest energy drain, even living as frugally was we do. In an ideal world, I’d like to be off-grid, but as things stand right now, it costs a lot more money than paying your hydro bills every month. (The only way to do it, from what I’ve read, is through the savings in buying land that isn’t connected to hydro.)
But please, more suggestions, as I’m more interested in solutions than politics. (Although I appreciate all the different viewpoints on the teabaggers.)

Sounds like you’re doing great to me. It’s just a continuum I think, that must be walked exactly where you are in life; I probably won’t ever be completely satisfied with how my system works. Bill Mollison says that the yield from a site is theoretically unlimited. (Don’t wish to debate that claim), but Mollison is a fairly sharp cat.
Just keep doing what you’re doing.

Whoooaa there pardners, you and kunstler need to become conscious of your erroneous framing:
Obama a “progressive?” It is to laugh! Obama is a right-of-center corporate errand boy, little different from his predecessor.
You and Kunstler seem to be unaware of the transformation of the political landscape that has occured starting with Reagan: what is considered “the left” in this country today is really centrist.
You want progressive? Then read Nader’s latest book. And pass the word.

Personally, I’d like to install solar panels on the roof to heat our water:
thats solar thermal and is 80% efficient, solar [pv] is 20% ?
check ‘ solar living institute?’..sonoma. at one of my classes a slaesguy said he learned more there in a weekend than he did at his job in a year.

‘taking with it the commercial real estate market and all the banks involved in financing it’
JK:
this story might bring you a laugh.its the tale of the candy brothers. they bought a triangular piece of beeverly hills at wilshire blvd in hopes of building 230 condos, at starting prices of 5? million.
they paid 500 million for the property THAT HAD SOLD 3 YEARS EARLIER FOR 33 MILLION.its in foreclosure now with a mexican billionaire taking over.

Solutions what a concept. Like it.
I compost but have rat traps all around my 1/3 acre.
In my neck of the woods we harvest rainwater off our roofs. I have a septic system that produces greywater for my coconut trees, fruit trees, and bananas.
I have seen some totally solar homes in action.
$25K investment–They work well!

Calling Obama the leader of the progressives is politics for Dummies. Calling Obama the “leader” of anything is comic absurdity with a twist. The Political center turns out to be a pretty barren place in reality.
Progressives oppose the wars and occupations, want accountability for crimes against the constitution, want single payer health care, the end of warrantless spying and oppose bailouts for banksters.
Obama is the ineffectual leader of the party of worthless promises and meaningless symbolism.

“I post on Facebook and some of my FB friends are part of the Teabag movement. I’m not and it disgusts me. It appalls me that these FB friends actually favor nullifying Federal laws and believe they have a right to leave the Union. These folks hate Obama and the progressives. I’m no fan of his either, but that’s based mainly on ‘pro-life’ issues’, otherwise I’m not with them… I’m so far out of their plain, that I’m immediately dismissed when I begin to talk about what I think needs to be done to save our Nation…. Our Union has problems but breaking up or leaving the Union is not the solution.”
Our Union is a legal fiction maintained for corporate convenience. Behind the endless Left vs Right foodfight is the stark reality that the “Progressive” and “Tea Party” movements are separate cultures with radically incompatible worldviews. Neither of these groups could possibly govern without oppressing the other… even if they wanted to. And of course neither of them really wants to; in fact after decades of being thwarted by the Other, each of the movements seems to be full of people who actively want to hurt the folks on the other side.
You’re clearly up on US History so you probably recognize these lines:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…”
The Americans colonists and British royalists of the 1770s had much more in common with each other than Progressive and Tea Party people do.

OEO, your quote from Heritage Institute did not demonstrate Obama has spent more than Bush, because Obama has included the cost of the wars in his budget. Bush did not.
Using “emergency” funds to pay for most of the war, the Bush White House has kept even Congress and the Comptroller General from getting a clear idea on the war’s true costs.
Other expenses Bush simply overlooked, one of the largest of which is the $600 billion going toward current and future health care for veterans.

“I doubt that you’ll see them burning their own checks in big public demonstrations the way the Vietnam War protesters burned their draft cards.”
Checks = Money (to support a family, pay a mortgage, etc.) – A Draft Card equals an
(possibly unwanted/likely) obligation. What planet are you on ?
“the agency that prints their social security checks,or the other one that pays for
their liver transplants” is exactly what our Congress has created – a DEMOCRAT
Congress in both situations. Neither is tenable over the long term.
“their government-issued extended unemployment benefits” – Thank you Democrats.
“how do they propose to maintain the hyper-complexities of suburban life without taxes to pay for fixing the countless roads their lives depend on or to run the gold-plated central school districts that seem to exist solely to provide Friday night football?”
Pretty simple: Curtail the looters and cease paying the leeches (that the looters created)
and there is plenty of money to do just exactly that. Not that I really care about High School football.
Roads are a Government problem/obligation – public housing, food stamps and Medicaid
are not, at least according to the last read I did on the U.S. Constitution. As for the school districts, most of them were apparently doing fairly well until the Feds got involved.
Your “long emergency theory” resonates to a degree (to me), but frankly, Sir, I think you
are full of shit. Nice making money on it, though (at least for you).

Tripp sez:
“As a quick example, we are replacing our side-by-side EnergyStar refrigerator with a small chest freezer coupled with an external thermostat to maintain appropriate interior temperatures. Because of the extra insulation in a freezer compared to a fridge, and the chest instead of door configuration, it will use 1/40 of the power that our “EnergyStar” fridge consumes.”
Yow! That is truly forehead-smacking! (One o’ those: Geez, why didn’t I think of that? moments. Weeeeell, ’cause I ain’t the bright! ;o) )
I have a 880 gal. water-mass tank as an addendum to my furnace. After the furnace is done heating the house, energy left in the burn is pumped through coils in the tank. Keeps the place toasty all night with that water’s heat retention. I know for sure we’d use about twice as much wood in the winter months without it.
Always interested in heat storage (cold ’round here, don’cha know), so the Solar Guy’s investigations sound intriguing. I had thought about piping under a basement floor, in a mass of sand (that is itself insulated from the 55 deg. earth beneath) might be viable. I’ve never seen a study on it (in theory or practice) so I dunno. Necessity being the mother of invention, and all that, we’re likely to see a lot of different things get a “try-out”.

“i heard on AM radio today obama or his judges want warrantless ability to survey/track citizens.”
The half has not been told.behindthewizardscurtain.com/bonusG/anatomyofcon.pdf
“In searching for the new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. . . . But in designating them as the enemy, we fall into the trap about which we have already warned, namely mistaking symptoms for cause. All these dangers are caused by human intervention and it is only through changing attitudes and behaviors that they can be overcome. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself.”
Sounds like a good plan . . . if you’re Darth Vader.

Here are two bush influenced liberal racist tea party marxist palin obama democratic republican hate mongering CNN FOX news illuminati conspiracy attempts at storing energy harvested from the sun in the summer, for use in the winter…isabellaecohome.blogspot.com/
– these people seem like overkill on the depth and insulation but go for it isabella!arthaonline.com/Word%20Files/Ramlow_SolarToday_ND07.pdf
Bob Ramlow has been on it since the 70’s and he thinks a few feet of sand will do for 75% of your heating…

The annual Chainsaw Rendevous is this week in Ridgway, Pa. If you are anywhere near there stop by. The carvings are well worth the gas used (unlike NASCAR). Auction of pieces carved during the show is at noon on Saturday (2/27).

rhetoric? the truth is bipartisanship is alive and well. Republicans just voted for Obama’s jobs bill:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) thanked the newly-elected Republican from Massachusetts. “I hope this is the beginning of a new day here in the Senate. Whether this new day was created by the new Senator from Massachusetts or some other reason, I’m very, very happy that we were able to get this done. But there are some winners. Not any individual Senator, not Democrats or Republicans. The winners are small business people throughout this country.”
Brown was followed by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who was followed by her home state GOP colleague Olympia Snowe.
Sens. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Kit Bond (R-Mo.) also backed the bill.

Asia:
I’m in MA. As I recall, it was about 5 grand for the setup: tank, liner, copper coils, and control “brains”. Not cheap, but I’ve “not spent” a large amount of money on black gold (Texas tea) in the meantime. (It also heats my water via a separate coil.)
Hey, check out Solar Guy’s 2nd link there about the basement sand box! Man, the schematic of the layout is just about what I had thought I’d try. [cue theremin] Damn, guess it works, no matter how you choose to heat it. (Wood boiler would probably be more “dependable”, but you can’t beat passive solar for cost-effectiveness.) Neat stuff.

Obama a Marxist? Gimme a break! Obama is about as Marxist as my dog. Read the book, “Das Capital”, and get the clue. Obama is capitalist through and through. Capitalism needs the nanny state to smooth over its internal contradictions. Without bail outs, incentives, tax breaks, gutted regulations, capitalism falters and dies. A free market is deadly to capitalism. That’s why the political class, who by the way owns the government, makes sure the system keeps humming. That humming is the sound of wealth being siphoned ever upward. Obama only proves that it’s the class divide that matters, not the racial divide. He and every other president are just managers for the Imperium. The difference between the Rep’s and Dem’s is that the Dem’s are more willing to give a little to keep a lot and the Rep’s aren’t.
Claiming that Obama is outside the norm or is against the system misses the point. He’s a willing product of the system. If he didn’t “believe”, he wouldn’t have been nominated. The “answer” is for the system to collapse. What rises from the ashes might be a little more fair and just. Maybe.

Gregg I think your confusing the socialist/fascist “capitalism” with real capitalism. We haven’t had capitalism in the US since 1913. A cookie for you if you can tell me what criminal entity was born in 1913.
Although I agree with you that Obama is in bed with the looters. Just as Bush was and both sides of CONgress is.

Great post Jimbo! Hollywood horror has nothing that can compare to the endless daily carnage seen in our institutions of education, business, finance and politics. Which channel to choose???
It’s like a real time cross between Invasion of the Body Snatchers and SAW VI.

OK since you say you are.
Aluminum cans that you would throw away or recycle you can fill with water. If a purist then paing them black with spray paint. If putting up dry wall then use them for insulation. The watr will hold the heat.
Fish tanks. I hang shower curtains over windows then hang blankets. Take a curtain rod, hang it then throw a blanket over it.
Leave hot water in the tub after you take a bath. Stones and sand in basement. You can tile over it. When my next door neighbors moved in they took all the rocks out from under the old flooring before they put the new in. I told them to leave them but they thought I was crazy.
Pellet stoves are great. Not as much pollution as wood, you only have to clean them out every two weeks as they burn so pure and hot. About 300-400 for the winter. You might get them cheaper on ebay if the auction is close to you.

Slow cooking works great. Roast beef in at 120 and let cook all day and it comes out runny rare.
If you have radiators then lower the water temp to about 120. The thermostat doesn’t go off and on and off and on all the time, just a steady 120. Really saves.
If you don’t have radiators you might try to get some from salvage places. In the 70’s when I was urban pioneering a friend hooked them up to his coal Ben Franklin stove and boy was his little father,son,holy ghost house warm in Philly. And really cheap.
I heat a 6000 sq ft 3 story victorian storefront and apartment for about 1000 a year. It will be more this year tho. If I used my pellet stove I could bring it down to 400.
A swimming pool in the basement would be excellent for many reasons.

And what do you think we have been doing on the internet all these years? Buying and selling our vitamins, dogfood, soap, clothes, jewelry, and you name it. People are making art and selling it. Ebay does well and so does Amazon.
You can make your own books, magazines, blog and get paid for ads, sell info and really anything you can imagine.
Yard sales and thrift stores are selling 10 cents on the dollar. I buy things chea-per than in the 1950’s.
And always check the dumpsters as the thrifts are still dumping tons of good stuff every day. I’ve gotten a lot of nice quilts. What I don’t use I give to my Amish friends when I pick up eggs from themd to deliver to fancy restaurants for cost and a free meal for delivery. Just pick the good and expensive ones to pitch to. Buy a meal there a few times and then offered the free ranging chicken eggs. You know the ones not full of anti biotics and genetically engineered corn fed hens that lay lousy pale eggs in a cage that goes around.
I now have 4 restaurants and with 3 more I can eat like the best of them every week for free. The Amish like it as they don’t hae to deal with lots of cars coming in for 1 or 2 doz. I buy 30-50 doz at a time. Easy all around for them, me and the restaurant.
Read Napolean Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. Or Russell someone who started Temmple University who wrote a speech about Diamonds in Your Own Back Yard. I get green hulled black walnuts every fall and sell them for about $1 each on ebay. Around here a truckload goes for $10 not counting getting them in there. I sell 10 or them and get the same price. I tell them but I don’t tell them how I do it.
I haven’t wanted a job job since 1962.
Right now I am hardballing it with my mortgage holder. I have paid 22K so far, have 10 more years to go but quit paying. On purpose. I figure I am just one of millions not paying so I am going with the flow. I tell him it won’t appraise for what I have already paid. The roof leaks and the electric needs work to be up to code. About 25K. So if they kick me out and spend 25 then they just might get it back in 5-10 years or so only it will be in devalued dollars. If I’m not here to bail out buckets of water from swimming pools up there then the rain and water will ruin the entire building, the city will condemn it give them 60 days to fix it or lose it. So I’m waiting for his answer that I was supposed to get 4 weeks ago. He’s still thinking along with theother heirs who have found they got a white elephant and not a pot of gold.
Hey mister, how can I keep paying you the mortgage and fix it up? I’ll be 85 when I finish and then I’m supposed to fix it up? Am I going to live to be 120 to enjoy it?
Nice argument huh? Of course he may call my bluff and I’ll leae but I’ve dlost much better properties than this and I will have lived here free for over a year. I can also sue for fraudulent selling practices. A new roof my foot.

The Tea Party IS Reich Wing, IS racist to the bone and is composed of people who seem to have never read a history book or the constitution. Obama is actually well to the right of Nixon as I see it. Nixon would have shit bricks at the thought of millions of homeless US citizens. It was literally unthinkable in 1972.
For all the idiots crowing about the mortality of Social Security and Medicare get a freaking clue. There is absolutely NO, as in ZERO political support in this country for eliminating these two programs. Think of what happens to the value of your house when every geezer in the country is trying to sell their paid-off 3/2 in order to buy groceries and pay for the heat. Think about how popular eliminating Social Security will be once it becomes clear that it means your wife’s momma freezes or moves in with you.
There will be an expanded nanny state because the alternative is millions of men realizing the police cannot be everywhere. If you think you can gun-up enough to protect yourself against organized gangs; think again. You will pay protection or you will not move from expensive walled enclaves. Or you will become a gang member in order to eat and sleep under a roof. This is SOP in Columbia, Kenya and South Africa to name a few states with large disparities in wealth. Choose, pay the tax man or pay the local jefe.
Global Warming is real and accelerating. Peal Oil is real and happening now. The opitons available are to cooperate and support our neighbors or all go down together. If that means you get a little less you’re going to be glad it isn’t nothing.
b.t.w._I see pissant is back with the tag OneEyeOpen. The fool simply has nothing else to do.

Truer words were never spoken…we must separate to avoid a civil war. Let’s let the Lefties go to the hell they’ve made for themselves, but resist with all our might their desire to drag us down to that hell with them.
Thankfully, we have the state goverments in place just waiting to take over. Undoubtedly, new coalitons or actual “Unions” will come into being between the states. Is it Unconstitutional? Well as Shane said, there is a death clause in the Declaration of Independence. We are under no moral obligation to continue with a Goverment that does not serve us. Rather we are obligated not to so continue. The list of grievances that we could write would far exceed those Jefferson wrote against King George. Just as the English used the Indians to terrorize the Colonists, the Federal Goverment has used Blacks and Hispanics to terrorize Americans. And of course, an enormous amount of unlawful taxation. And endless infringemnet of sacred rights as given in the Bill of Rights – the creation of which several states demanded before joining the Union. If states were the impotent entities the Liberals would have us believe, how could they have had this right not to join? But they did. And likewise, they have the right to leave.
In the broader sense, doesn’t the very word “union” connote a voluntary or chosen coming together? I think a study of our early history would bear this out. If we don’t have the right to secede, then we are a bullshit country with a bullshit name, like the old USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – as if most of them wanted to be in it or had any choice in the matter.
Of course, all of this will take alot of cognitive readjustment, such as realizing the South had every right to secede. And that Lincoln was the first great Tyrant. And that Robert E Lee and Jefferson Davis were among the greatest Americans to ever live.
Anyway, let’s hope that the divorce can be amicable. Then trade and travel will not be hindered. Always remember, self preservation is the first law of morality – the one that makes the rest possible. For morality is for the living, not the dead.

Holy shit! What a perfect recipe for mold and dry rot. Liquid thermal mass has to be sealed. Open top aluminum cans of water in walls are a cockroach’s paradise. Storm windows go on the outside for a reason. Condensation behind heavy curtains is an easy mold recipe. Leave hot water in the tub if you have a really drafty house otherwise expect dry rot and mold.
Never attempt to cook meat at any temperature less than 180º F as it won’t kill bacteria otherwise. 120 degrees is wonderful if you are culturing bacteria in a moist environment or possibly ok for making jerky if you’ve brined the meat first and have good air flow. Swimming pools in basements are know to destroy buildings unless massively and carefully ventilated directly to the exterior.
You have to be a remodeling contractor. That’s a perfect recipe for endless work. No wonder your roof leaks.

Vlad_Nice to see you checking in with your Klan sheets on, waving the confederate flag, and generally standing up for a bunch of fat, white, losers, who object to working for a living. Why do you think there are so many hispanics in the South now buddy? It’s because good conservatives like you destroyed the ability of US citizens to keep meatpacking jobs safe, well-paid and unionized.
I’ve met people like you and when it comes down to it you object to everyone in the world except your small circle of cronies. Well, you can take your fapping fantasies of lily white conservative republics and shove ’em because if the Feds could hold the United States together with Civil War era technology they certainly can do it now.
You Southern Klan types get your panties in a twist we’ll simply cut off your AC. Your well-larded women folk will bitch mightily and the second war of southern treason will be won in a hot July weekend. Three California teenage hackers could do that before lunch.

Jim,
I like the way you stick to hard numbers.
For example, until the price of an average
home is TWO times median household income,
there will be no “housing boom”. Even after
the gargantuan fall since 2006, houses should
fall ANOTHER 40% to be at correct levels.
The numbers are clear. Even with the slide of
median home prices from the insane $260,000
level back down to around $190, you still have
houses that are around FOUR times median household
income, give or take. That’s why I’m in awe of
the bubbleheads on CNBC or Bloomberg who insist
that “whisper” numbers show an incipient boom.
These people are like the farcical Cornucopians
of the past.
Also, I think you’ve got an objective take on
the medical scams run on Americans. It’s on
this issue that the Teabaggers are very confused
(“no Socialized medicine but don’t you touch my
Medicare”) and it’s a major reason why, despite
some agreements with my conservative friends
herein (like the controversial Vlad) I must
depart from them here. It is INSANE to insist
that a person’s entire life should be at the
total mercy of a cancer which occurred between
jobs which is pretty much where we’re at. You
get cancer uninsured, you die. You lost the
insurance “lottery”.
Of course, it’s a heavy debate as to the cure
but one thing’s for sure … the insurers are
running as insanely out of control as the
bankers, pre-bailout. I don’t believe in
“big government” but unlike libertarians, I
believe that ABUSE OF FREEDOM CREATES BIG
GOVERNMENT and the bankers and insurers have
abused their freedoms. Hence, sooner or later
they must be throttled for the commonweal.
Libertarians claim that evil issues forth from
big government. What they cannot see is that
MORE GOVERNMENT IS A NEWTONIAN REACTION TO EVIL.
Thus, while I detest the idea of government-run
healthcare, it is bound to happen sooner or later
because Big Pharma, Big Insurance, and the AMA
don’t know the meaning of enough.
Even “cornpone Nazis” realize that $40 aspirins,
$2500/day hospital rooms, and $20,000
appendectomies represent the abrocation of
reason. However, Europes grand Ponzi schemes
like their “free medicine” are ultimately
unsustainable so I sincerely hope that our
solution(s) cut a sensible middleground.
Eleuthero

Funny thing about that, eh? Why is it
that those Teabaggers look, en masse,
like a bunch of Fat Farm enrollees??
Whatever. You’re right, Nicklethrower,
that they’re very horrible physical
fitness will make them very, very poor
“revolutionaries”. They’re often so
zoned out on TV, SSRIs, and junk food
that they don’t even have enough staying
power to create a “revolt” in their house
like demanding that their kids do their
homework.
Like Joe Bageant, I see the Teabaggers as
an “endtimes phenomenon” because the corpus
of their beliefs does not hold together.
They’re pissed that they’re out of work and
want jobs (from the Obama Admin, of course)
yet they hate “commies” … defined as anyone
who denies them their Comcast and cheesesteaks.
I used to be somewhat interested in Alex
Jones’ conspiratorial screeds but then I
took a gander at some of his “inside guys”
and a lot of them are doofuses with a
cigarette hanging out of their mouth (why
does he put these guys in his films??)
and less than “pizazz” levels of energy.
Jones’ fixation on the “New World Order” is
focused on the idea of mass die-offs and
“Bilderberger” plans for such. He never
actually addresses the issue of whether the
world can SUSTAIN seven billion people.
Jones is an energy BONEHEAD nor is he very
aware of issues like Peak Freshwater and Peak
Food. How long can we goose soil with
petrochemicals whose price is going ballistic??
Finally, the problem with these issues are that
people seem to just scream liberal or conservative
talking points over a fence without dispassionate
debate on the NUMBERS.
Republicans (mostly Cornucopians) like to ignore
that Lake Mead is down EIGHTY FEET because earth
just spews what we need “just in time”. Liberals,
on the other hand, like to bathe in tertiary
issues like gay marriage and they want both
opulence AND conservation as long as the
“conserving” is not a conserving of THEIR
stash. Mostly, they like sounding good
SOCIALLY while living as wastefully as any
Cheney Republican.
Thus, we have a FARCE which, in a decade or
two, is very likely to lead to a near Mad Max
scenario because both libs and conservatives
don’t like Jim’s “negative talk”. As far as
I can tell, the difference between Democrats
and Republicans is one, mostly, of social
poses. None of ’em want to part with any
aspect of their lifestyle. At least the
Repubs are honest about their piggishness
while the Dems are surreptitiously piggish
while yelling for a greener body politic.
Dems drive to anti-pollution rallies in
SUVs and crossovers. 🙂 🙂
Eleuthero

I performed a sobering secret experiment last week. First, let me say I’m one of the random people still left with a job after the meltdown. Part of my job is designing electronic widgets, and management has been increasingly embracing manufacturing in China. It’s a small family-owned business I work for. Usually we reserve some of the assembly process and programming to be done here, by the boss’s own son. I decided to see if I could get away with outsourcing the boss’s son’s work. You guessed it, daddy doesn’t give a fuck! Chilling. Who knows, maybe I got the snowball rolling here.

turkey lurkey sez:
“”If weather was so affected by industry, then please explain the Ice Age and subsequent meltdown?”
Ah, another angry, armchair climatologist who ain’t gonna take it anymore. What a surprise.”
Ah, another moron that can’t answer the question of causation of earlier warming periods. What a surprise!

First you say:
“Calling Obama the “leader” of anything is comic absurdity…”
Then you say:
“Obama is the ineffectual leader of the party of worthless promises and meaningless symbolism.”
While you give him the assignation of “ineffectual” you continue to call him a leader. Couldn’t this be deemed a cosmic “comic absurdity” on your part?

“OEO, your quote from Heritage Institute did not demonstrate Obama has spent more than Bush”
Fine asoka-herself. Lets exclude Bush. Obama is on target to spend more than all previous Presidents combined (excluding George Bush). Feel better? (Moron)

“asoka |”Other expenses Bush simply overlooked, one of the largest of which is the $600 billion going toward current and future health care for veterans.”
AT LEAST THEY EARNED IT.”
Sandy,
asoka-herself didn’t acknowledge your post but let me fill you in. In his (sickened) mind, the veterans earned NOTHING. His reasoning (expressed succinctly in the past)? They knowingly volunteered for service in an organization that merely exists to support the maiming and killing of those who get in the way of the U.S. quest for world domination.

dee dee sez:
“So, what happened OEO? Didja sprain both wrists masturbating to Sara Palins speech at the CPap convention?”
No, actually I sprained them falling off my chair laughing at the pictures of YOU, entwined with the shaved woodchuck, posted on the Discovery Channel site.

What is and isn’t the Federal Reserve?
1. It’s not part of the Federal Government. The people who run it may be appointed by the president, they come from a very short list provided to the president.
2. It is chartered by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. It is a consortium of private banks.
3. It answers to no one.
4. It has supplanted Congress and the Treasury in the power to issue.
5. It is the money trust’s victory over democracy.
6. It should be abolished.
7. Fractional reserve banking should also be abolished.
8. If 1 in 10 Americans knew how our monetary system screws them everyday, there’d be bankers dangling from utility poles from coast to coast.

Irony alert! How are you any different from Vlad Krandz? You are cloaked in your own 600-thread count california sheets, only your manners fall far short of Vlad’s. I see spit flying out of your mouth whenever you speak. You should try and hook up with Wagelaborer. (Top that, Match.com!)
Just curious, Armadillo. How do you feel about fat black people from California?
I can’t wait until your mother-in-law comes to live with you!

I really love that note about the Tea Baggers being old, fat, white boys.
It’s true. Eventually we’ll wise up to how out of touch they all are.
My students, all under 25, just tune out. We are a bunch of old white people yelling at each other, like crazy uncles at a Thanksgiving feast gone bad.
Except the house is on fire and we’ll ALL burn, junior, the family dog, granny, and the whole lot.

In other words, you don’t want to live in same country as me. And I feel the same about you. See? We are in agreement. Make no mistake, we will laugh you to scorn forever, just as you do to us. All your plans for utopia or ecotopia, will come to nothing. We will hoot and holler the rebel yell as we ruin them – just as you people hooted with glee as you destoyed America. Now it’s our turn. The payback is a motherfucker isn’t it?
I’m not a Conservative God forbid, or part of the already co-opted Tea Party. Nor am I Southerner. In fact, I’m a Copperhead, a Northerner who holds Southern views. But more to the point, I’m someone who knows what a Country is – and America aint it anymore. You can’t have a dozen different races and two dozen different cultures in the same political entity. Where on Earth did people get such a foolish idea. You can have more than one State in a Culture, like the old Greek City States or the Italian Renaissance ones. But more than one culture in a given State, No. Think about it: Laws are based on Values which in turn are dictated by Culture. A multicultural state is by definition, ungovernable – as even orthodox pundits are begining to say.
Oh yeah, kudos to Mr Kunstler – for the second time he has come out against immigration. Small steps, small steps but in the right direction.

‘Why do you think there are so many hispanics in the South now buddy? It’s because good conservatives like you destroyed the ability of US citizens to keep meatpacking jobs safe, well-paid and unionized.’
patentley untrue. read ‘population time bomb’ then read ‘ alien nation’. dont know how old you are but if yr past 25…no fool like an old fool.

Most of the Tea Party is middle aged or a little more. And yeah, like most middle aged Americans they’re out of shape. So? Communists, Anarchists, and “Burners” are young and not yet fat. They abuse their bodies and soon will be. But by that time, most of them will have out grown their silly ideologies. And so the wheel turns and the cycles continue.
One caveat for pango: the hard core communists and anarchists are often of a different physical type than the average American: they are ectomorphs. So yes, such people are often healthier for a longer time. But stronger? Better in a fight? No. Nature is a series of trade offs – alot of these fat unhealty guys are still very strong and would crush an ectomorph in a New York second. If Pango wants to fufill his fantasies, he better get a weapon.

Nursery rhymes often condense profound moral lessons about how the world actually works. It’s always fun to see such childhood lessons shaping sophisticated adult rhetoric.
Take Humpty Dumpty:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
Then listen to the cadence of the conclusion of Jim’s latest column:
….and all the accounting tricks ever dreamed of in the fantasies of Harvard MBAs and MIT math PhDs,
and all the newly-evolved species of grifters and shysters who pull the levers of the systemwill not avail to hold back our inexorable journey into new circumstances, that will really determine the outcome of these predicaments.

A multicultural state is by definition, ungovernable – Vlad
Agreed. I don’t see eye to eye with you on race but I think there has to be general agreement on culture and its offshoot, laws ie how we live, how we deal with each other. Multiculturalism as an idea is deeply stupid and corrosive, an example of liberal ideology at its malicious and destructive worst.
In the recent past there have been a number of honour killings in Canada of women by their relatives all for the victims’ refusal to abide by Muslim or foreign cultural norms. I’ll bet there have been similar instances in the US.
There are other examples of cultural incompatability like female genital mutilation. These practices may be OK in the hills of Sudan but that sort of shit cannot fly here, there cannot be one iota of tolerance or understanding.
To its credit our federal government, in its handbook for newcomers, explicitly told immigrants to leave their wifebeating ways behind and to get with the program which is not something any Liberal government would have contemplated. The feds usually manage to fuck up everything they touch but on this thing at least they’re on the right track.

Permaculture?
We currently run a multimillion dollar Environmental Company in Vermont and we grow all of our own food. We think financial diversification has to go beyond our diversified asset portfolio as a run on the dollar or hyperinflation could erase all holdings of all types. Can’t decide to feed yourself the day after the stores are empty, takes about a decade to put it together, we are there at this time as this may well be the time we need it………………………………

However, Europes grand Ponzi schemes
like their “free medicine” are ultimately
unsustainable so I sincerely hope that our
solution(s) cut a sensible middleground.
“Ultimately unsustaiable”? Think again, England has had socialized medicine since WWII, and it is till working.
Only our profit-driven ponzi scheme seems to be going off the rails.
Socialized health-care in the US is inevitable.

“OEO, Trippticket and Abbeysbooks both come out of the “to smart to work at a real job” closet and they call you fucked-up?”
That’s a colorful trio! So growing food to feed my family, educating my children on my own time and nickel, and helping others do the same is not real work? Cause damn, there are some mornings when I pull myself out of bed that it really feels like work.
I would venture that MOST jobs in the west will demonstrate their uselessness within the next decade. On the flip side of that, there are literally TONS of jobs just waiting for people who see the work!
And if not waking up to an alarm clock and commuting is really messing you up, you could always just do it for fun…

“as a run on the dollar or hyperinflation could erase all holdings of all types.”
I think this is a forgone conclusion, only the timing is in question, but it also depends on what you call “holdings.” No matter what happens to the dollar my peaches will bloom, fruit, and feed me and the bees. The formal economy could be vaporized and it wouldn’t affect the laying cycle of my chickens.
We’re too invested, all of us, even the so-called “progressives.” Permaculture is not a form of gardening. It’s a new way of thinking. Those two things shouldn’t be confused.

Faced with the hangover of a housing bubble, the president’s team has insidiously nationalized the racket and is doing everything possible to keep housing prices unrealistically inflated, so that nobody still lucky enough to have a median income can afford the median price of a house.
Can we please send this to every newspaper editor in the country?? I am SO sick of reading about how high housing prices are a good thing for people and fpr the economy.
While I am on my rant, can the media please shut up about how people who have lost their homes due to foreclosure are so screwed. Excuse me, but they are not homeless – they can **GASP** RENT! (like I have my entire life).

I’m not commenting to anyone in particular here, but the common thread, right and left, seems to be an unwillingness to let the Free Market (the Laws of Nature) do its thing.
If you invent a new lightbulb that saves tons of energy, but you turn around and soak up the savings by building a state-of-the-art facility to manufacture those bulbs in, mine new materials for their fabrication, and invest company earnings in the next incarnation of eco-piety, what are you doing besides driving the economy? The same economy that mines, deforests, degrades, and exploits? A green-washed product is still a product. And Jeavons Law is still at work.
The only thing that holds hope for our persistence on planet Earth is behavioral innovation. Novel thought patterns. Otherwise, right and left together will destroy everything there is.
To all the folks out there who shout ‘progress!’ and ‘environment be damned!’, I hope you understand one day what a literally life-giving gift this economic collapse is.

“Excuse me, but they are not homeless – they can **GASP** RENT! (like I have my entire life).”
Or you can grab a pair, buy a cheap ass house (there are many cheaper than renting in a lot of places), and make it home. Your being there will probably make the neighborhood better right away.
It’s the unwillingness to accept change that enslaves people.

The government/military/industrial complex is obfuscating the truth, I think we’ve come to that agreement by now, but ultimately it’s on us to utilize the information we have, and act in a manner consistent with self-preservation.
Whatever that entails.
Is it more noble to starve in a mansion or feast in a hovel? I read an article recently about a lady living in her BMW! Note to moronic lady in Beemer: I just bought a house for $3000. Needs some work, but I can do that as I go, and it has a quarter acre of garden space, and room to expand. You could be sleeping in a Tesla and you’re still homeless.
Evolve.

“The only thing that holds hope for our persistence on planet Earth is behavioral innovation. Novel thought patterns. Otherwise, right and left together will destroy everything there is.”
I’m with you there.
The problem to me is that people are still looking for solutions from above – I think a lot of the political bickering represents the hope that a teabagger president or a true socialist could solve the whole sorry mess. (I even think this carries through to the conflicting myths of doom or scientific solutions to our energy problems.)
We can’t change peak oil. We can only change ourselves.
That’s why I think the answer is religious, not political.

“While I like the idea of growing things on your roof (about the finest insulation money can buy) doesn’t it mean that you can’t harvest rainwater?”
I was just having this chat with someone over the weekend. Living roofs are far more efficient at keeping things cool in summer than they are at keeping things warm in winter. Even though they are good there too.
So if you live in Spokane, WA, where it’s cold and dry, collect water from your roof. If you live in Macon, GA, where it’s hot and wet, go for the living roof.
No cookie cutter solutions.

“Tripp, I wish you well, but I think raising your kids and exposing your wife and yourself to such a neighborhood is a bigger risk than this economy.”
Then I trust that opinion will inform your personal decisions. All the best.

A fine mess you’ve gotten us into!
I agree with Jim and many of his bloggers’ views about where we are headed and how we are headed there…
Of course, in a ‘democracy’, pretty much everyone gets to share their views with everyone else…
This only appears to happen in blog situations- not the actual political arena where the media gets to rule the agenda…
But it is funny to see how widely the opinions diverge here on this blog…a lot of clear thinking and a lot of bizarre out-gassing…
My own predilection is that the only thing you can change in this crazy place, at this crazy time in history…is how and where one lives ones’ own life…and as a retired boy scout and a current sail hermit, I recommend: be prepared! Learn how to make do with less, learn practical things like how to stay healthy and happy with your own knowledge base… how to make repairs and adjustments to your stuff…how to cook simply and nutritiously on a mere fraction of the norm usually regarded as essential by consumer society…Now I live on my sailboat in a place considered to be ‘paradise’ for a mere pittance as compared to when I was busting butt to pay off the usual mortgage/rent/insurance/tax, and all of the other trappings of consumerville…
It’s not for everyone but it sure works for me as I now have time to really enjoy watching my life passing by and unemployment doesn’t scare me in the least…I always have work to do living a self sufficient lifestyle on the boat…
As for the complexities of todays’ societal problems? Well, I gave up on that a long time ago…trying to get people to do right?…right!
Why get all complexified when all you have to do is remember the golden rule? The complexities exist so that smart people can take advantage of less smart or less interested people whether we’re talking politics, religion, economy, or what have you…
Again, just get your own act together and you will be far better off than desperately trying to keep up on the rat race of todays’ economy…when you get dollars, spend them as soon as you can on something of lasting value, something that you can use for living or for barter because the day is not far off when those cases of beans or whatever are going to still have value when the dollar will not…
Thanks for the blog Jim…
SailHermit

Yes, you CAN govern a “multicultural” society, but only by the Rule of Law, and an absolute, unshakable allegiance to inviolable individual rights, which is something we gave up in this country almost the day we gotten the constitution written.
We turned our backs on our founding principles almost immediately. We retained slavery, women were not even considered to be people, and our government retained the right to confiscate property, impose taxes, and conscript labor (military draft).
So now we are a limited “democracy” (either mob rule of rule by pressure group) in which no one has rights that cannot be abrogated by someone who can buy politicians, or claim greater victimization.
Yes, Cash, we have had honor killings in the U.S. among our Muslim populations. One nice Pakistani woman was burned to death in her car by her husband (a dowry killing) and a young girl murdered in St. Louis, in the very same building in which a friend of mine was murdered 30 years ago. Her father and mother stabbed her to death, with her sister’ collusion, for becoming too Westernized.
People who immigrate to a country must be made to understand that while they may cling to their poisonous, backward, human-hating “cultures”, that they are subject to their adopted country’s laws and that those will not be altered in order to accommodate their old country’s “culture”. If you want to retain your homeland’s “culture”, go back there and stay there.

Laura: the above comment sounds like I completely disagree with you. I don’t.
Immigrants (I am one myself, coming from England to Canada) should be made to adopt the host community. Its rules, dress codes and language. (I keep meeting other ex-pat Brits whining about North America – I always ask them why they don’t fuck off back to England, then, seeing as it’s so great.)

Yes, Shambles, they were dealt with.
The parents of the St.Louis girl were given the death penalty, and so was the husband of the Chicago woman.
The United States does not recognize the legal customs of other, alien cultures- yet. We are still at least nominally, a country that enshrines individual rights… but for how much longer?
We have let our rights be eroded greatly since this country’s inception, and it was easy to do that because our founders would not put their principles into practice? How on Earth could they, and justify slavery, and legal inequality based on color or sex… or the process by which the native population of this land was dispossessed and mostly exterminated?
Since that time, we have given our government the right to confiscate our property and as much of our earnings as our rulers please, for the “common good”. We privilege certain groups of the population based on ethnicity, race, or gender by means of “affirmative action” as well as old-fashioned legal discrimination (look at the marriage laws in some states if you doubt that).
We have legally enabled some groups of the population to steal the wealth of other groups, who are legally prevented from defending themselves. We have elevated a small elite to position of permanent privilege where they bear no responsibility for crimes they commit and where they are shielded from normal business risk and the consequences of their actions. We allocate the money contributed by taxpaying citizens to illegal immigrants by providing them with health and education from day one of their presence here.
We have not demanded, nor has the present administration suggested, the repeal of the egregiously unconstitutional USAPATRIOT Act,which enables our government to imprison us without formal charges and hold us indefinately without trial.
I could go on…. but you grasp that we’re well down a really slippery slope that ends at a truly totalitarian state.

Someone just sent me this link.
Thought I would post it here. But, I WARN you JHK fans, DO NOT go to this site! Content contains common sense. High danger of liberal head explosions. DO NOT do it. For the third time, DO NOT do it. You have been warned! That is all I can do.DallasTeaParty.org/3365/
Oh, unfortunately there is a fat guy at the end. So it will be too easy for you all to sterotype everyone else. However, (second warning, this is not liberal logic) I did count four other people on the video that were not fat, which equates to only 20% of this sample that are fat. So, sterotyping an entire universe based on a 20% result of a very small sample is risky at best. But you all go ahead anyway.
Last WARNING – DO NOT go to the above link.

We’ve decided that capitalism works best for everything no matter that the evidence that it doesn’t. Capitalist roads, airports, and rivers would be a nightmare because we would have to pay myriad tolls to get from one place to the next. It didn’t work when Europe tried it so we turn those functions over to governments.
The cheapest, most effective, medical system in the world, dollar cost per patient lives extended is Cuba’s. If US business really had any interest in cutting their health insurance costs they would be sending research teams to Cuba to figure out what happens there. Instead we’re totally head-in-the-sand on medical care.
But when capitalism crashes they can alway count on their racist puppets to muddy the waters and hide their fetid tentacles with cries of “it’s the darkies fault.” So nothing improves and you turn your backs when your neighbor gets foreclosed on a house he made payments on for however many years.
“I got mine bub, tough shit” is the american way. Who are you going to complain to when YOUR ass gets kicked down street. Unless you are totally debt free, you’re on the list.

Just because something else caused global cooling previously, it doesn’t logically follow that humans aren’t causing GW right now. It is like saying that because cancer can kill you, you can’t die in a car accident.
In other words, your argument is a non sequitur and basically complete BS. What a surprise!

I wonder if any of you angry armchair climatologists could wrap your thick skulls around the idea that multiple factors, both man-made and natural, could contribute to climate change?
If you want to believe that humans have no strong effect on climate and that it is determined solely by sunspots, I guess its no skin off my back.
Eh, anyways, I tried. Some people are just dense.

star-telegram.com/2009/12/29/1858922/some-tea-party-912-project-groups.htmlWhen you sign up for e-mail from the supposedly nonpartisan Common Sense Texans network of Tea Party members, you’re giving your address to a Dallas Republican lawyer and social-networking-campaign expert who has been an activist for private-school vouchers.
Turns out I’m not the only person who’s leery of these fake grassroots activist groups sprouting on every block.
Robert Butler is the new state Libertarian Party executive director. He sounded frustrated Tuesday.
“The Libertarians started this thing, and now Republicans want to get ahead of the parade and take it over,” Butler said by phone from Austin.
“Their brand name is held in such disregard that they’ve started marketing under the Tea Party banner. Then, behind the scenes, their organizers are getting in there and co-opting the Tea Parties.”
Butler, a former Republican who switched parties in 2003, is particularly burned about the Dallas Tea Party. That group also operates the Grapevine-based NE Tarrant Tea Party, one of at least four Tea Party groups serving the Keller-Grapevine-Southlake area.
“We have evidence that Republicans are using the Dallas Tea Party to collect names and information,” Butler said.
For example, the Web site commonsensetexans.net, a sign-up and information site for 34 Tea Party and 912 Project groups in Texas, is registered to Dallas lawyer and Tea Party coordinator Ken Emanuelson, a Fred Thompson campaigner and veteran Republican organizer.
The Dallas Tea Party has not included Libertarians in events since July 4, Butler said.
About one-third of Tea Party attendees generally claim libertarian views, Butler said. The split usually comes on religious issues such as gay marriage, where the Libertarian Party opposes government involvement.
Sounds like the GOP in drag to me.
I noticed in Texas they have confused the sentence with the paragraph. You are allowed to use more than one before hitting the return key. It must be those Texas schools they’re so proud of W. fixing up for them.

You can’t have a dozen different races and two dozen different cultures in the same political entity. Where on Earth did people get such a foolish idea.

Have you ever been to India, Vlad? I have spent quite a bit of time there. They have 16 official languages recognized in the constitution, dozens of religions, races, cultures, etc. and it all works… one of the strongest democracies in the world and, along with China, may soon equal the USA as a world superpower.
Your prejudice is showing again.

Capt. Spaulding said “I see that the pissant is back”, to which the pissant replied “See you got a new mirror ;.} I would like to suggest a couple of equally witty responses that I believe you overlooked. The first is, “I’m rubber you’re glue whatever you call me bounces off me and sticks to you” the second one is ” I know you are but what am I?” Feel free to use these as they are (along with yours) in the public domain, being heard on most grade school playgrounds. I eagerly await your next hard hitting, witty, reply.

I disagree. The US (and Canada) is not a country of immigrants. The vast majority are not foreign born.
In Canada more than 80%, me included, were born here. We are not immigrants. This place is home. I do not have fond memories of a foreign home town or foreign friends I left behind to come here. I feel no allegiance to the place my parents came from or for that ethnic group. My one and only loyalty is to this country.

on a.m. radio a caller claimed hed moved into a new house somewhere in cali. on his new water bill was a 50$ charge for 911..if he doesnt pay now hell get SUPER CHARGED if he calls 911 w/o paying the 50$ FIRST.
the d.j. said ‘ what if yr passing thru that town, see a crime and call 911 from yr cell’??
Jks long emergency may be bit by bit.

Shambles, I don’t believe that immigrants to a country such as this should be made to adopt our purely cultural or aesthetic customs, such as manner of dress or other customs that are purely a matter of personal choice in a free country.
However, we should not have to make special accommodations for them in these matters, just as we should not have to accommodate our own citizens in purely personal preferences.
And there should be no question of allowing violations of our laws on religious or cultural grounds. Sorry, we don’t care what your “customs” are, you are not allowed to kill your wife or kid for violations of your “honor”, or pollute our beaches with animal sacrifices, or be protected from being fired from your job because you took five unauthorized days off for a religious retreat or some such.
Likewise, we should not protect our own citizens and/or business concerns in other countries when they run afoul of local laws and customs. You should travel and do business in an alien culture hostile to us and our ways, strictly at your own risk and cost. I’m willing to bet that far fewer of our business concerns would have chosen to do business in slave-labor havens if the State and Commerce Departments weren’t there to negotiate trade pacts and work with the local governments for favorable legal treatment,and if they weren’t backed by the U.S. military.

Why do people insist that the Earth is the property of humans. It was doing fine before they overpopulated and it will do fine when they annihilate themselves. I do have one question for you history buffs/experts. Does anyone know the condition of the youths who were doomed with the rest of the Roman empire. Were they the same as our current U.S. teenagers. By that I mean, recognized as this up and coming generation of whizzes and scholars. When in reality they are only a bunch of spoiled and overprotected bunch of sissies ( not their fault).

“Are you including the $3 Trillion that Bush kept off the books for his wars?”
You got me. But we’ll have to include the 6 trillion that Fanie and Freddie are in the hole that O’bammy has kept off the books. Otay?

“Why do people insist that the Earth is the property of humans. It was doing fine before they overpopulated and it will do fine when they annihilate themselves”
Good point. So leave. Right now. I’ll watch you pack and drive you to the interplanetary transport station. (You’ll have to pay for the gas.)

Yes cultural considerations alone should keep out other races. We have enough diversity to deal with just with European Groups. Diversity a strength? They drink the kool aide and consider themselves cool. Unity is strength and diversity weakness.
How’s Canada doing? Are they still planning to give away more territory to the “First Nations”? We coquered them fair and square. Is anyone going to give Whites back West and Central Asia – much of which we once controlled? They Asians beat us fair and square.
There is always some reason for Whites to give in and die. Even the Scandanvian Countries, who didn’t have much in the way of colonies, have found reasons to guilt trip themselves into oblivion.
How are the Inuit doing with their huge new “nation”. Are they acting independent or just talking smack?
We are thinkin about giving large parts of Hawaii back to the Hawaians. One of the few states that could be energy independent because of Geothermal Power, the Natives have blocked it -the Goddess Pele doesn’t want it.

“…the idea that multiple factors, both man-made and natural, could contribute to climate change?”
I suppose man made COULD also be a factor. Now what? Wheres the data indicating the degree and what should be done about it. Supply the untainted evidence that supports your theory. I mean before you introduce cap and trade legislation that will cost TRILLIONS of dollars.
I wonder if you can wrap your thick skull around THAT, fucking moron.

“I give OneEyeOpen two days before he gets banned (again). Anyone want to take any bets?”
Well no shit, Sherlock. Because you (little NANCY BOY) will go crying to Jimmie because someone on this site, with a couple of working brain cells that you don’t tend to agree with, is ruining your spoiled-fucking-brat day. Whatever, wank-boy.

You should get a job in a travel agency – they make a living lying to people about how safe and wonderufl places like Brazil or India are. From what I’ve heard, there are a half dozen or so secession movements in India not to mention the Muslim/Hindu struggle. And the age old class/caste conflict which has now become very dangerous because of a huge village based Maoist Movement that has the Elite frightened. In other words, you just soaked your pants again.

Turkey-lurkey sez:
“Just because something else caused global cooling previously, it doesn’t logically follow that humans aren’t causing GW right now.”
Just because salamanders didn’t cause global warming in the past doesn’t meant they aren’t causing it right now.
Just because volcanoes caused global warming in the past doesn’t mean they will cause it in the future.
Just because they earth has experienced climate cycles in the past doesn’t mean it won’t break out into a steady temperature of 72 degrees in the future.
Ad infinitum……yawn, scratch,stretch, fart (in the direction of turkey-lurkey).

“Just because something else caused global cooling previously, it doesn’t logically follow that humans aren’t causing GW right now.”
Just because salamanders didn’t cause global warming in the past doesn’t meant they aren’t causing it right now.
Just because volcanoes caused global warming in the past doesn’t mean they will cause it in the future.
Just because they earth has experienced climate cycles in the past doesn’t mean it won’t break out into a steady temperature of 72 degrees in the future.
Ad infinitum……yawn, scratch,stretch, fart (in the direction of turkey-lurkey).”
What that supposed to make sense?

I remember years ago when I worked in nursery, a Cambodian immigrant delivered her 17th child (should have paid her to stop).
Her husband and one of the older sons showed up to look at the baby, a girl. They showed a distinct lack of interest and left.
One of the older girls showed up. I asked her about her dad and she said that in Cambodia, girls were not valued.
“Well” I said, “You’re not in Cambodia anymore. We don’t put up with that in America.”
The girl agreed and told me that her mother was leaving her father. Wow!
That is a big advantage of the nanny-state, IMO.
The mother could get welfare so that she didn’t have to put up with the asshole she married.
Before you start on me, Vlad, I don’t think the Cambodians should have been brought here. They were traitors to their people, collaborating with the imperialist Americans. They were rewarded for their treason by being imported to the US.
They were some nasty people.

We’re discussing GW. OEO deems himself the resident climatologist. Now its healthcare and suddenly Stinky wrote the book on that topic. What a fucking card. I bet you’re an even bigger prick in RL
Keyboard Commandos lurk incessantly on boards like this because they don’t dare be such pricks in RL. Even in the dives where such attitudes are tolerated they get banned for flapping their jaws without cease.

Their have been conflicts and violence between members of the same races, the same cultures, the same religious groups, in countries everywhere.
There has been conflict in India since 1947. The country works as a functional democracy… and is richer for being multicultural.
Your white separatism is showing.

Correction:
There have been conflicts and violence between members of the same races, the same cultures, the same religious groups, in countries everywhere.
There has been conflict in India before 1947 and after 1947. The country works as a functional democracy… and is richer for being multicultural.
Your white separatism is showing.

“we must separate to avoid a civil war. Let’s let the Lefties go to the hell they’ve made for themselves”
There’s not going to be a civil war. As long as the economy is functioning, the Empire will stay in control. The only thing that could shake it loose is if the money machine finally, truly fails. If and when that happens, mass society will collapse so fast there won’t be anything to fight over.
I’m not saying there wouldn’t be a lot of mayhem post-Collapse; quite the contrary, no society with as much diversity and as many weapons as this one is going to devolve peacefully. But there’s not going to be a replay of 1861 if only because post-Collapse, there won’t be a sufficient economic or resource base to support large successor states. Any conflicts there are will be of the kind the 19th century Prussians used to call “bandenkrieg” (war of bands). Modern strategists call this sort of thing LIW (Low Intensity Warfare). Analysts of modern Africa call it “bushwar”.
So much for the supposed civil war to come… What I was trying to get at in my original post is that the “Union” is now an empty shell. There is no longer any culturally-unified American People inhabiting it. Regrets about that are irrelevant; it’s Reality.

“Because you (little NANCY BOY) will go crying to Jimmie because someone on this site, with a couple of working brain cells that you don’t tend to agree with, is ruining your spoiled-fucking-brat day. Whatever, wank-boy.”
Well, maybe you got banned because you act like a foul-mouthed middle schooler posting to youtube.
Or could it be because you astroturf like you’re paid for it?
Or no…it must be because you’re just too smart (and presumably handsome and successful) for all the plebes on here to handle without crying to Jimmie for a ban.

Ah, it look like we’ll all have to look forward to fast moving raids by bicycle born bands supported by swarms of flying drones. The Sheriff will fight back with dismounted industrial lasers, caltrops and web controlled remote sniper towers.
Lithium punk anyone?

Liberals used to love the idea that the
Red states had higher divorce and crime
rates. However, that’s largely because
most of the sunbelt states are Red and
crime all over the WORLD happens more
in mild climes. Who wants to do a
breaking and entering when it’s like
Bismarck, ND in January?
However, look at the correlation now
between Blue states, government debt
levels, and high taxes. Despite huge
tax rates for their WELFARE STATES,
California, New York, and Massachusetts
are in serious trouble. Of the Red
states that are in trouble, most have
low tax rates and might be able to save
their asses with a small hike which won’t
kill their citizens. Not so in America’s
most liberal bastions.
The current Liberal mentality epitomizes
the old adage that “the road to Hell is
paved with ‘good intentions'”. And I still
claim that Liberals are philosophical
hypocrites because most of them don’t
date, socialize with, or even talk very
much to “people of color”. They buy
SUVs, too. They got caught just as much
as conservatives in the stock market crashes.
I thought only Republicans were greedy,
sociopathic bastards.
At the end of the day, I’ve got no use for
either the American Democratic or Republican
parties. What’s the diff?? If Obama is as
bought and paid for by bankers and assholes
like Larry Summers, what’s the diff?? I see
no clear lines of demarcation. Even their
lobbyists and PAC monies overlap. What’s
the diff??
Eleuthero

Sarah Palin is that quitessential American TV character who has the bumbling husband and son in law but with her spunk and grit and common sense show the stupid men the way. This is a staple of American fare that has been shoveled into our mouths for so long we just shrug now and put some salt on it before it clears our throats. It was an outgrowth of Christianity where women wrestled control from men by crossing their legs in the name of Jesus and civilizing the Roman savages. I too am writing about this and I can tell what is the tipping point. The big one in LA. A great earthquake right in the kisser of our great China mouth. No goods getting thru. No help for arguably the mosy militant population in America. Katrina was a dry run for how the federal government will ignore a disaster and blame it on whoever.

Why would I leave tha planet? I love it here. It’s the many jerk-offs like you that I can do without. The only problem is it isn’t 1968 anymore, so I can’t punch you in the mouth without repercussions. This is why all these wimps and dipshits get to express their demented views. Barney Frank comes immediately to mind.

“Or no…it must be because you’re just too smart (and presumably handsome and successful) for all the plebes on here to handle without crying to Jimmie for a ban.”
Just one plebe, sweet-pea. That being you.

Hot off the AP wire:
World trade suffers biggest drop since WWII
2 hours, 8 minutes ago
BRUSSELS (AFP) – Global trade last year suffered its biggest collapse since World War II, an unprecedented 12 percent drop according to new figures, with worrying signs suggesting 2010 threatens only mediocre recovery.
“World trade has also been a casualty of the crisis, contracting in volume by around 12 percent in 2009,” Pascal Lamy, director general of the World Trade Organization, told an audience in Brussels on Wednesday.
“It is the sharpest decline since the end of the Second World War,” Lamy said, and a steep downwards revision from the WTO’s most recent estimate, in December, of 10 percent.
While he would give “no forecast” for 2010 trade growth, he insisted a “pickup” is underway, but led by an “overheating” China, could not say whether it is short-term or sustainable.
The massive contraction makes it “economically imperative to conclude” stalled international free trade talks in 2010, Lamy told business figures and policymakers at the European Policy Centre, a Brussels think-tank.
The Doha Round of trade negotiations that began in 2001 with a focus on dismantling obstacles to trade for poor nations has been dogged by intractable disagreements.
These include how much the United States and the European Union should reduce farm aid and the extent to which developing countries such as India and China should lower tariffs.
Deadlines to conclude the talks have been repeatedly missed, with the latest being the end of this year.
Lamy blamed last year’s trade “freefall” on a reduction in demand “across all major world economies” as well as the drying-up of trade financing and rising tariffs or national subsidies.
Some protectionist response “was to be expected,” he said, although he maintained that worries of “runaway protectionism” had proved an exaggeration.
Amid vast government deficits, he said the biggest enemy to a sustained pick-up was “intolerably high” unemployment that the International Labour Organisation estimates has hit 200 million people worldwide — 20 million of whom have lost their jobs since the crisis began on Wall Street.
“The political consequences in my view are still to come,” Lamy warned of the so-called jobless recovery, underlining that “keeping international markets open is vital” if negative global economic growth of minus 2.2 percent in 2009 is to be reversed.
He revealed the latest WTO figures in order to underscore his argument that completing the Doha treaty talks was essential to re-booting the global economy after recession.
Lamy said getting agreement on Doha is a “challenge” but said the world was “80 percent” there.
He also said he “wouldn’t venture any prediction” on when Russia would come on board.
Along with Brazil, China and India, Russia makes up a quartet of developing economies said to hold the key to conclusion of a deal that would cut agriculture subsidies and tariffs on industrial goods.
On Wednesday, Australia resumed bilateral free-trade talks with China after a 14-month gap.
Speaking the previous evening at the European parliament, Lamy said Europe could speed up Doha progress if it made its position clearer on fisheries subsidies.
“This is a candidate for a bit of poking on your side,” he said.
However, he also admitted that agricultural subsidies would remain at levels up to four times higher than in industry, as a “contribution to the problem of food security.”
The EU and the US are each under greater pressure now than when negotiations were first launched.
Recent data has also shown US consumer confidence lower than expected and zero percent growth in the fourth quarter for EU giant Germany.
Bank of England governor Mervyn King also on Wednesday expressed worries over the health of its key trading partner, the 16-nation eurozone economy, which is suffering on markets amid heavy Greek debts.

Vlad,
We have some hope. Conservatives are in power in Ottawa, the Prime Minister is a Westerner, the conservative heartland is the West which is better than having nation destroying eastern based Liberal degenerates at the helm.
Are we giving up swathes of this country to the so-called First Nations? That seems to have died down of late but, as you know, just like the US, Canada is infested with liberals that work to undermine it. So I’m sure it ain’t over yet.
If First Nations people have any sense they’d get their asses off the no-hope reserves and move to towns and cities where they have a chance. It’s not impossible, I’ve seen it done. (In the 1960s/70s my school principal was Indian. I used to play street hockey with his kids…many other examples)
I have sympathy for them but individually they have to take the bull by the horns to improve their lot.
Nunavut is just a few thousand people, it’s a money pit just like before it was separated from the Northwest Territories. You see Vlad, we’re scrupulously not racist but we hived off Nunavut on racial lines. The Northwest Territories is mostly Indian, Nunavut is Inuit. Total crap if you ask me, neither territory is remotely self sufficient, together or separate. As they say, money talks, bullshit walks.
You should have been here in the 1980s/1990s. Tremulous, whining ninnies in the liberal east were shitting themselves because Quebec separatists were threatening secession. The ninnies were doing their level best to castrate English Canada (and themselves) to placate the separatists. People in the west of the country, for their own self interest, put an end to the orgy of national self abnegation, at least temporarily. It was entertaining, you would have enjoyed it. But that nonsense too seems to have died down.
And you’ll love this, I’ve heard anecdotes about Dutch families abandoning the Netherlands and settling in British Columbia. I’ll bet you can’t guess why. Just hearsay, don’t know the extent or truth of it.
(OK Asoka, you’re probably quivering in righteous rage, hammer away.)

More on “World trade suffers biggest drop since 1945”
“The [Doha Round international trade] negotiations, which began in 2001 and are currently at a standstill, are aimed at removing barriers to trade for poor nations by striking a deal that would cut agriculture subsidies and tariffs on industrial goods.
“Talks have hampered by disagreements on how much America and Europe should reduce farm aid and the extent to which developing countries such as India and China should lower tariffs.
“The figures emerged as official figures confirmed that the German economy, the biggest in Europe, had stagnated in the fourth quarter of last year after 0.7 per cent growth in GDP between July and September, adding further pressure to the euro, which has been battered by recent weeks over Greece’s ability to reduce its debt.
“It also dimmed hopes that Germany might be able to bail out Greece.”
Quoted from The Times (UK): business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article7038951.ece
Apologies to interrupt the various party political name-calling and ya-boo online posturing, but this is fucking huge.
Two issues: (1) the US runs a lot of stimulus (through farm aid, and to oil and coal producers) and tariffs; the European nations have long been battling to end these. (2) If Germany ain’t going to bail out Greece, subject of last week’s blog, where does that leave the Euro?

hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-10_job_sectors_in_decline-1090
If you’re in one of these industries (or in one of oh so many others of predicted lesser decline) you might want to start working on something of more lasting value.
We need so many (ultimately small-scale and sustainable) farmers right now it’s silly. Nursery stock producers in every burg, local goods manufacturing – soap and candle makers, bakers, potters, smithies, machinists, welders, repairmen, ranchers, small energy systems techs, GARDENERS, poultry breeders (not literally, OEO, though I know it sounds exciting!), anything that is faltering at a larger scale that you’d like to see continue in the future (cheese? chips? wine? beer? local sports leagues?) is wide open for smaller scale endeavor.
The future itself is wide open. Surely there is something you enjoy doing that you can make a modest local living out of.

The prison poplulation in the USA is actually greater than the number of farmers.
Put this idle labor force to work growing their own food(why burden productive tax payers) and growing food for sale to fund these prisons.

Why were the Germans so daft as to give up the mighty Deutschmark in the first place? Share a currency with totally corrupt countries like Italy and Greece? Really boneheaded.
IMO the UK had the right take on the Euro, mainly that it was an unworkable currency.
Maybe to make it manageable they have to throw overboard countries like Italy and Greece. Maybe the sooner they lighten the lifeboat the better.

The Germans gamble everything on global domination? Surely not. . .
IMHO the Euro would have worked in an age of unlimited oil – particularly if the producer countries could have been coerced into accepting Euros rather than the US dollar.
English PM Tony Blair was initially gung-ho for the Euro at the time it came out. Problem was that the debate was shaped by people that had taken vacations in Europe and seen prices rocketing, and the pro-Euro shills got overlooked. Thankfully.

Great idea. In Florida many of them do produce at least some of their calories. Why is this not promoted across the board? We could even make staff salaries dependent on institutional profits.
Let the pot-smoking peaceniks out, where they belong (it’s just a plant for Christ sakes; every pharmaceutical on the market is more dangerous), and make the real criminals pay for their mistakes. They definitely shouldn’t be a drain on society.
Thank you, Dick Cheney, for really pushing the prison industry into its true growth potential!
Dick.

Ron Paul Shown To Be A Buffoon Crank Conspiracy Theorist
According to Ron Paul the Fed financed Sadaam Hussein during the Reagan administration and financed the Watergate break in during the Nixon administration and might be rescuing Greece at this very minute. Who knows what else the Fed is up to? Who knows what evil lurks?
Bernanke destroyed Ron Paul’s whole set of bizarre theses when Bernanke pointed out that all the meetings of the Fed and the books of the Fed are open to public scrutiny after five years.
Ron Paul needs to retire. He is completely out of the mainstream with his conspiracy theories about the Fed which have absolutely no basis in fact.
Video here of Ron Paul being taken to the woodshed by Bernanke:huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/24/ben-bernanke-snaps-at-ron_n_474874.html

Oh, by the way, Abbey, I think the stand you’re taking with your mortgage is admirable. If value is created by criminal activity, why should the common folks be required to legitimize it?
It follows: the banksters create wealth out of thin air, via REIT derivatives, stumble over the laws of physics interupting their little game of Ponziball, and the public bailouts turn phantom money into real hard cash. The poor (and soon to be poor) pay the rich for the right to pay them more? I wasted too much of my savings coming to this realization….
They got theirs, and they are still getting ours. It doesn’t matter if blanket refusal to pay brings down the ship. It’s already coming down. And it’s really not our ship! (Unless you are a citizen of the United States of Monsanto.)
People should stop wasting money playing pretend.

Nathan, as an example of large-scale permaculture in action, the Mars candy company is employing some of permaculture’s best and brightest to increase profits and decrease environmental impacts from their commerce.
Their latest plantation development in Vietnam employs top-shelf intercropping – leguminous peanuts feeding cacao trees, with coconut and macadamia overstory. Annuals transitioning into perennial (read: lower-energy) mixed orchards.
Mars is privately owned by the way, by three siblings. Not the corporate juggernaut that say Nestle is…gives them some much needed mobility in these changing times.

Dale said something on Monday that stuck in my craw, and I have to comment.
He suggested that “inventive half steps (or tenth steps) like the ones trippticket and Solar Guy are talking about” are probably adaptations to a future of decreasing energy, but not actual solutions, per se.
I’d like to have that clarified. If the future is one of declining energy/money, then how are steps taken to inventively adapt to those novel conditions not “solutions?”
In my view, these kinds of activities are exactly the solutions that will be required of us.

OBAMA JOBS BILL PASSES SENATE WITH BIPARTISAN VOTE
The bipartisan vote for the major jobs bill was 70-28. Government is not broken. Republicans are working with Democrats to address a serious unemployment issue by providing support to small businesses who hire people.
Change we can believe in.
I want my President to succeed. I want America to succeed in promoting the common welfare, as the Constitution suggests is the role of government.

Just happened to notice someone way up thread asking JHK not to refer to Obama admin. as Progressives any longer, and gave a few good reasons. I guess that was in response to my blasting Obama and his croonies as NOT Progressives but, more accurately, liars, cheats and thieves.
I like to fancy myself as fair and try to be balanced as much as possible, so here I offer the benefit of the doubt.
Realizing that there might be some who actually do have good intent and understand that we can not all have it our own way and might actually be willing to constructively work toward a common goal, I won’t, for now anyway, sterotype everyone claiming to be Progressive with the liars, cheats, and thieves now in DC. If you truly have good intent and are willing to work constructively toward a workable common goal, then we should be able to act accordingly.
I wonder now if a true Progressive might offer that same benefit of doubt to someone who has been to a TEA party?
Assuming that we are willing and able to communicate on a reasonable level, I admit in advance my ignorance of your positions and, in an effort to educate myself, I have a question for a true Progressive. What are the steps in the process you would persue to create real jobs in this country?
In order to move forward (some might call it *change*) a meaningful dialouge must begin somewhere.
I hope to have demonstrated here that I, not being a bonafide TEA partier, per se, but one who is certainly more sympathetic to thier views than the liars, cheats and thieves now ruining this great nation, have offered the first step in that direction.
Peace be with us.

One thing people forget about the whole Fannie,FHA,and Freddie Mac bullshit.
People signed for mortgages that they had no business taking. Nobody had a gun to their head.
Same ole shit of people not taking responsiblility and blaming nameless others for their ignorance. Wall Street, mortgages lenders and every frickin person in the shit who took the mortage participated.

“b.t.w._I see pissant is back with the tag OneEyeOpen. The fool simply has nothing else to do.”
Hey fucklips,
Add up the key strokes of your posts. Add up mine. You win. By a huge margin. And I have nothing else to do? Uh, huh.

“Assuming that we are willing and able to communicate on a reasonable level, I admit in advance my ignorance of your positions and, in an effort to educate myself, I have a question for a true Progressive. What are the steps in the process you would persue to create real jobs in this country?”
I’ll start off by saying that IMO both US corporate parties are an interchangable group of liars, cheats, theieves and whores.
I think the only progressive political option in recent years came from Ralph Nader.
According to wikipedia, Nader claims that around the time of the 2004 election “John Kerry wanted to work to win Nader’s support and the support of Nader’s voters. Nader then provided more than 20 pages of issues that he felt were important and he “put them on the table” for John Kerry. According to Nader the issues covered topics ranging from environmental, labor, healthcare, tax reform, corporate crime, campaign finance reform and various consumer protection issues.”en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Nader
It’s interesting to speculate based on this platform whether a President Nader (assuming he was electable) would have created a different country by now, or if American problems run too deep for that. Or if he would have ended up just as bought as the rest of them.

Well, Cowboy Jack, I am a Progressive, and, as I said, I’ve been to a tea party.
I think you asked why I didn’t ask to speak. No one was speaking, except for the praying guy that started it.
There was a woman there who I knew. I said “Hi” She said that she didn’t know me. I said that I had worked with her husband for 10 years (and I did again last night, actually). She denied knowing me. I told her that we had been riding together. She said she didn’t remember. Then I said that I had the palomino mare, and she finally admitted knowing me, which I knew she did. And I know that she coveted my horse, even though she’s a right wing Christian and that’s against the 10th commandment. So that was the friendliest person there!
Anyway, how would I create jobs? I think that is the wrong question. That is why we now accept the military industrial complex and are employed making weapons of mass destruction and why communities fight to have prisons put into their environs.
As a progressive, I believe that we as a people should decide what we need to have a decent and sustainable life. I vote for food, shelter, water, clothing, sewers, railroads, medical care and internet access. Others may have different ideas.
We decide what we need, then divide up the labor necessary to produce it. We are a very productive society even now, with so many unemployed, so many imprisoned, so many doing bullshit jobs.
I think that we could provide a decent life for each other AND work less hours apiece.
And we have to quit thinking that the only way to prosper is to GROW. The Earth has limits.
We need to live within those limits.
I hope that answers your question.

My apologies. Not the budget; the deficit.census.gov/compendia/statab/2010/tables/10s0457.xls
Note that the reductions in the deficit, estimated for 2012 and onward, assume interest payments at today’s interest rate. This rate is expected to rise toward or even above historical average levels. That would double or even triple the present amount of the budget’s payment–which is the “why” of some estimates of trillion-dollar deficits for the next nine or ten years.

Muddled intentions, incoherency, paradoxical expectations; sounds like you’re describing a CLUSTERFUCK nation!
Hey, THAT’S what you people WANTED, right? After all, you elected a semi-illiterate MORON to be your president TWICE. And then you all stood by silently as the moron invaded the wrong country, repeatedly violated your constitutional rule of law, legalized torture, drove your economy into the ground, sold-out your middle class to corporate interests, openly committed war crimes, permitted rampant FRAUD to permeate every aspect of American life …and he did all that without ever even having the ability to string a coherent sentence together in plain English.
THEN in the following election you lamebrains decided to IGNORE the ONLY American politician (Ron Paul) who had DENOUNCED all these actions and who HAD a viable solution and voted instead in favor of an unknown ‘community organizer’ from perhaps the MOST politically corrupt city in the entire USA.
Well my friends; you can all EAT SHIT AND DIE NOW.
You CANNOT unscramble an egg nor can you turn back the hands of time. THIS is what you MF’s put into the oven and THIS is what came out. So shut your f’ing pieholes AND ENJOY.
Bon Apetit!
PS: After I leave this country, if I ever come across another American I swear I’LL PUNCH THEM IN THE MOUTH!!!

“Wall Street, mortgages lenders and every frickin person in the shit who took the mortage participated.”
And they shouldn’t have a problem participating their way right back out the door when they understand they’ve been had.
I’m all for responsibility, hell, permaculture is nothing more than shutting up and getting busy making the world work in a way we can be around to enjoy. But at some point I think we should admit that TPTB created what they did to get richer, not to help people out.
Ownership culture? You mean let everyone buy their own house and enjoy if for a bit before the system crashes and the rich take all of it for themselves? It’s happening everywhere. Even my supposedly progressive grandparents own like 10 houses.
Where is the breaking point? How many houses do they have to own versus how many homeless people there are? What’s the ratio of greed to disenfranchisement that warms up the torches and pitchforks?
Must just be the media obfuscation holding things together at this point.

“I think the only progressive political option in recent years came from Ralph Nader.”
Check mark for Nader in 2004 and 2008 on Tripp’s ballot. I don’t vote for corporate step and fetch it boys. Where were my progressive cohorts? Falling for “Hope and Change”? What a shame.

Amercians are addicted to debt.
Wonder why we have the moron leaders we have.
They are just like the avg.person who borrowed too much money for homes they couldn’t afford,drive around in cars with debt, pay for meals out and clothes with debt.
Excuses of blaming the system is Bullshit.
Everytime I see these programs about the evil banks taking advantage of totally honest and totally responsible joe lunch bucket. Joe is just
as responsible for the problem as the guy from Goldman Sachs. Both were willing participants.
Blaming and excuses add up to jack shit.

One thing people forget about the whole Fannie,FHA,and Freddie Mac bullshit.
People signed for mortgages that they had no business taking. Nobody had a gun to their head.
Same ole shit of people not taking responsiblility and blaming nameless others for their ignorance. Wall Street, mortgages lenders and every frickin person in the shit who took the mortage participated -Workingman1
I worked in real estate at the height of the boom and a lot of those mortgages were taken out by upper echelon professionals leveraging their surplus income by flipping houses. These people would fly in at 8, buy a house they had never seen before, hand the keys to property managers at 2 and leave on the 5:30 shuttle out of town.
There is no goddamn way that they read or understood either their mortgage or deed transfer papers in that time. Doubly so since they tended to be M.D.’s or MBA’s rather than real estate lawyers. So blaming the little people who got suckered is simply racism with thin whitewash.
Most of the debt written in the last decade is bad paper simply because the planet does not have the resources to cash all the markers. This was debt written with the assumption of never-ending economic growth and therefore, increased resource utilization. Go back to JHK’s prime thesis which is one of resource constraint overruling fiat-money economics.

“Blaming and excuses add up to jack shit.”
While I also agree with what Pangolin is saying, I am not making excuses. I signed a mortgage I very much could afford, then borrowed more when it gained value, then lost money selling it after the downturn, then declared bankruptcy. Sad state of affairs.
But I learned from it. And it radically changed the way I view every facet of life today. I’ve eaten my crow, and am nose-down making my world a better place.
Now if we could all just stop defending our respective con-artists, and do the same, we’d be in a much better place.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…

” After I leave this country, if I ever come across another American I swear I’LL PUNCH THEM IN THE MOUTH!!!”
Hey, dickless, if its so fucking bad get out…as in “right fucking now.” Otherwise you shut your little fucking pole-hole. Got it?

Trip_ The real bitch is that we have unemployed and underemployed people staring at empty, houses, warehouse space, shop space and farmland with no access. Every county sheriff in the land is enforcing the rule that absentee landlords and bankers get paid FIRST.
So the whole system is going to shit while DC and Brussels argue over debt ceilings of fiat money. It’s like a football strike where they decide the oldest, least desirable players have to get paid before young fast players are allowed on the teams. Nobody buys tickets for that. The stadiums stay empty and people find other things to do on Saturday afternoons.
The biggest welfare cheat in the world is called a BANK. The second largest is in the form of STOCK MARKETS. If you are looking for people holding back productive activity look there.

The Valentine’s love affair with the fossil fuel guzzling monster has left most of the happy motorists broken hearted in what was once a honeymoon of hope cruising the burger joint into a drive by nightmare reality. Do your best to avoid getting shafted as the storm on the horizon gets really bug ugly.

“I’d like to have that clarified. If the future is one of declining energy/money, then how are steps taken to inventively adapt to those novel conditions not “solutions?
=============================================
They are….but none of them individually (or collectively for that matter) is a solution to a much larger problem.
I used that qualification because in the rarefied atmosphere of what too often passes for logic on this blog, if you say “natural gas” and suggest it’s part of a solution to a problem, the radical “emotionalists” here would immediately set you up as a straw man and insist you think there is enough NG in the world to solve all of our energy problems. So I was trying to forestall the usual strawman harangue.
I suspect…..and I say “suspect” because unlike many here I do not think my brain…. even though more immense then many parallel universes…. is still yet large enough to predict the future infallibly. As I have stated before, IMO any collapse will take a longer time than JHK and his supporters suggest, due to both our ability to downsize lifestyles and our technological ability to adapt. Collapse, when it comes, will likely be caused by something other than a decline in energy production.
The sort of adaptations you suggest are logical and likely to have their place. However, I don’t think it is reasonable to assume they are the only solution, if such a thing can be said to exist in any real since at all. New technologies and old more localized ways of doing things will both play a part including, most likely, fuel cells and innumerable technologies we haven’t even guessed about as yet.
Placing all your bets on conservation OR new technology is adapting a faith I do not see justified by anything other than prejudice.
By way of analogy…how many of the pioneers who came west on the Oregon trail in their wagons, the tracks of which are still quite visible here in Idaho, would have imagined that within 150 years their decedents would cross the same territory that took them months in 3-4 hours? I’m thinking maybe “none” would be a pretty close estimate. Never underestimate our inability to predict the future, history demonstrates such a stance is well justified.

JK:
I read in the WALL ST JOURNAL that ‘INDIAS GREEN REVOLUTION IS FAILING’. Due to increased population, declining soil quality and increases in fertilizer prices.
‘Farming is in a shambles’ says a punjabi farmer.

“‘Farming is in a shambles’ says a punjabi farmer.”
They’re in really bad shape thanks to America’s one-size-fits-all mentality, and our good friends at Monsanto (who by the way maintain the corporate slogan ‘Patenting Life’). No thanks, I like life the way it is, and not genetically modified.
I’ve read that some of their wells that used to be within 30 ft of the surface are down around 400′ deep now, from all the irrigation required by our “improved” strains of rice. And by improved of course I mean “Monsanto’s hybrids and fairly expensive”. Not to mention that their idea of improved means huge yields…IF you apply our fertilizer and pesticide program. That’ll be an additional charge, by the way. Not that it ever actually produced more. No net gain for sure.
Just made a lot of money for Monsanto mostly.

“Placing all your bets on conservation OR new technology is adapting a faith”
I don’t think putting my money on conservation is a bad bet, and it’s certainly not faith-based. If you live within the background energy of the planet (i.e. sans fossil fuels), then I think there’s every reason in the world to believe that your ways are winning ways. I’m not there, but I’m heading that direction rapidly.
And I certainly like some technologies; I just think we have a lot more than we need. Actually I think we have a very unhealthy amount of technology in our lives. I think that sitting here at the computer debating an absolute stranger about entirely speculative things is terribly unhealthy. I think it’s also a good bet to say that energy descent will probably correct that to some degree.
And I never said that my ways are the ONLY ways. Don’t know where you got that. But they are solutions to widespread problems in the world today, nonetheless.
That’s the only reason I’m here. Free unlimited energy could arrive tomorrow, and I’d still be here to talk about ways to live more responsibly, and without western hubris.

“…swarms of flying drones. The Sheriff will fight back with dismounted industrial lasers, caltrops and web controlled remote sniper towers.”
You actually think the rest of this century is going to be about whizz-bang sci-fi gadgets?

I read an interesting item about farming in (I believe) the Pujnab.
This guy was going round trying to convince the farmers not to go into debt in order to buy the Monsanto seeds. He was telling them that the traditional seeds, while yielding less, were far cheaper and more reliable (the Monsanto type need constant irrigation or they produce zero).
The sad thing is that most of the farmers wanted to be the big guy. They had seen the Monsanto ads on TV, and that was what they damn well wanted. It’s a losing battle to tell them the outcome.
There’s a lot of that over here, too. Big houses and big SUVs, bought on credit, to keep up with neighbours (who also bought all their stuff on credit). Everyone gotta be the big man.

” After I leave this country, if I ever come across another American I swear I’LL PUNCH THEM IN THE MOUTH!!!”
Boy, are you going to have sore knuckles. I can’t think of a single country on earth where you won’t run into another ‘Merican. And some will probably block your punch and stick you with a knife.
So, that will be a short excursion.
“Hey, dickless, if its so fucking bad get out…as in “right fucking now.” Otherwise you shut your little fucking pole-hole. Got it?” oeo
Gee, is that all you have to add to the discussion? Why don’t you go back to masturbating to the Sara Palin videos on YouTube and leave the rest of us alone, ok?
Geez, does JHK ever moderate this comments section? Is he so lame that he can’t figure out a way to permanently ban some little asshole that drags the whole thing down into the gutter? Don’t he know that this reflects back on him, and his reputation? Guess he don’t give a fuck.
And he wonders why no one wants to have him come and give his wunnerful, wunneerful speeches on Gloom & Doom. Perhaps they read this first….

“Everyone gotta be the big man.”
Wisdom distilled into one sentence. Keeping up with the Joneses has the net effect of turning every ecosystem on planet Earth into more humans, and more stuff for humans. But the ride can’t last forever. We’ve been on this path for a long time, and I can’t think of a more interesting time to be alive. Just to see how this goes.

I figured it out earlier when my daughter and I were cleaning up lunch. OEO is actually a kid. Probably a high schooler judging by the lack of language skills. Just parroting everything he’s heard his monumentally thick parents say. Nothing more.

Personally, hateful people like him kind of depress me.
Why would anyone be so deliberately rude and mean?
If he’s a kid, it’s even worse. If only his mother had been sterilized.
You gave up on the comments last week. I posted what I thought were encouraging words for you, talking about how well living in a poor neighborhood worked out for my kids when they were young.
Good luck!

Next time, try hitting the ‘reply’ button option ON THE CORRESPONDING POST THAT YOU’RE REPLYING to so that everyone knows WTF you’re talking about. Well, everyone except YOU that is.
Because let’s face it; you didn’t say a SINGLE COHERENT THING in your entire post other than babble & whine like a pre-adolescent teen about how I’m going to get “stabbed”, “masturbating to Sarah Palin” and a couple of other similar kindergarden-themed thoughts.
Next time, try attacking the MESSAGE instead of the MESSENGER too! You’ll find it makes you look less stupid.
And you SURE CAN use all the help you can get in THAT dept.

Wage, I did catch your post. Sorry I didn’t respond. I’d had enough of Vlad at that point. Never even bothered to check back to see what was said.
But I do appreciate your story. Sounds kind of like us growing up. My parents were both in school for years after I was born. Lived in a single wide on a postage stamp in Athens, GA, but all I remember was the river down the hill, and the frogs, and the bikes. I agree, kids don’t understand poor, and I don’t consider myself poor either.
I have one of the best libraries around – good stuff too, like Folio and Easton Press books – because I want my grandchildren to inherit the knowledge and literature of our age. We have lots of fantastic artwork, pottery, and sculptures that we’ve collected over the last 20 years. Spent the money on good furniture and beds when we had it.
Hard to feel poor when you’re eating your own roasted chicken and root veggies on a one-of-a-kind pottery plate with pewter silverware and glass of dark beer from the cellar.
We’ll make this place our own. I’ve got some pretty big plans up my sleeve. And thanks for the vote of confidence.
Tripp

Speaking of incoherence, I can’t help but notice while reading thru the posts here that most of you REALLY *DON’T* SEEM TO GET IT.
I mean there you are; babbling on about green fuels, organic gardening, health insurance rate hikes,leguminous peanuts,the Italian Renaissance and one poster was even kind enough to recite Humpty Dumpty for us.
ALL in response to an article by JHK wherein he ACCUSES THE TEA PARTY OF INCOHERENCE.
Well it seems that most of you must ALSO be busily serving-up some crumpets to go along with your ol’ Five O’clock ‘spot of tea’ yourselves, because you sound JUST AS DEMENTED as the Tea Party’ers.
FOCUS!
This nation is FALLING APART at the seams, like a cheap Armani knock-off. And the PROBLEM is basically that the USA has become a nation of FRAUD. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. And of WAR CRIMES, FINANCIAL PONZI SCHEMES, JUDICIAL MISREPRESENTATION and RAMPANT THIRD-WORLD-WORTHY CORRUPTION.
You people have no problem using violence against OTHER innocent people of the world but when it comes time to perform a little well-deserved mayhem IN YOUR OWN COUNTRY, your asses pucker-up like a sour prune and you choose instead to CONTINUE to take it up the ass with complete DOCILITY.
Poor Joe Stack, making the ultimate sacrifice in order to try to ignite a revolution ..among ball-less SHEEP.

“We decide what we need, then divide up the labor necessary to produce it.”

Pissant said

You are not a progressive. You are a socialist. Socialists “divide things up”, just as you suggest.

So, dividing up labor is socialist? Let’s see, who else divides labor up? The military does, with a top-down command structure. The military even call them divisions. Divisions are numbered and assigned missions and perform major tactical operations. The military must be socialist.
Corporate America divides up labor, with a top-down command structure. The corporations even call them divisions: marketing division, sales division, etc. No doubt about it: General Electric, AT&T, Exxon Mobil, WalMart, etc. are all socialist.
Pissant, think before you post.

Ok. I know it hasn’t been long but, as expected, only two replys to my request for viable means to create real jobs in this country.
The first, Shambles, didn’t even mention a way to start on jobs. And the second, WageLaborer, tried but *dividing up work* is NOT an approach to creating jobs.
BTW, Wagelaborer, please stop identifying yourself as a Progressive. Your reply to my question above is 100% textbook Socialist. You are a socialist. Period. Proof is in your reply. That is why you did not like the TEA party. And, don’t bother to go back, you still won’t like it and you never will. You are the prime example of the kind of guy who make guys like me tend to diss those who claim to be Progressive.
Note to One Eye Open, you correctly exposed Wagelaborer. You seem to be a fighter and mostly on the right side. Do yourself a favor and clean up your act. You could be a valuable contributor. While I can certainly understand your frustaration, especially on this site, try to ignore those who take personal shots at you. We just exposed two posters on this site as fakes. Still NOT sterotyping all of them because I hope that there are some reasonable ones out there, but we sure found two fakes real quick and easy here. Keep working that anlge. You’ll get most of them eventually. But you must be respectful or your messages are worthless.
My invitation to any real Progressive to identify actual steps necessary to create real jobs for people to go to to do work in exchange for pay in this country is still open.
Cowboy Jack signing off and riding into the sunset.
Peace be with us.
P.S. Joe Stack was a lib folks. Not a TEA party guy. Sorry.

Hi Wage, I wouldn’t worry too much about the American military industrial complex. It’s done. The US is flat broke and running on fumes and besides the industrial half of the complex offshored itself to China. Seeing as it’s now effectively under Chinese control it won’t be generating money to fund the US military.
I’d be worried more about the Chinese military industrial complex, the Chinese military not being noted for its squeamishness and Chinese corporate and political leadership not really known for their humanitarian impulses.

Oh, one more quick thing. Yes, admitedly, there are some crazies in the TEA Party, but most I know are good hard working folks. Yes, working. They do work. If they still have jobs. And those that don’t want to. Anyway, you all choose to use those few crazies to stereotype the whole group. That is silly.
You also sterotype them as overweight. Yes, there are fat people everywhere. Especially here in the USA, unfortunatly. And I would bet that there are some overweight socialists and libs and even progressives too, but I ain’t sterotyping.
Them TEA party folks ain’t really hatin’ on America folks. They really WANT to do things that will make things better. IMO they would do much better if they would adknowledge PO and PO. (Peak Oil and Population Overshoot). But, I think we all agree, that is not going to happen in any political party until it is too late. So, we must do the best we can with what we have to work with.
Cowboy Jack

RecoverylessRecovery:
Next time, try hitting the ‘reply’ button option ON THE CORRESPONDING POST THAT YOU’RE REPLYING to so that everyone knows WTF you’re talking about. Well, everyone except YOU that is.
Because let’s face it; you didn’t say a SINGLE COHERENT THING in your entire post other than babble & whine like a pre-adolescent teen about how I’m going to get “stabbed”, “masturbating to Sarah Palin” and a couple of other similar kindergarden-themed thoughts.
Next time, try attacking the MESSAGE instead of the MESSENGER too! You’ll find it makes you look less stupid.
And you SURE CAN use all the help you can get in THAT dept.
Gee, how much have you been drinking?
It seemed pretty clear that I was replying to both your stupid coment ” After I leave this country, if I ever come across another American I swear I’LL PUNCH THEM IN THE MOUTH!!!” and OEO’s reply to that very same comment.
Gee, you sure are one stupid fuck.
Are you OEO’s circle jerk buddy by any chance?

Hi Cowboy Jack. With regard to creating jobs in this country, I don’t think it will be easily done. The good paying jobs were the factory jobs (I had one), and unfortunately the corporations farmed them out to China. I honestly don’t see any jobs of that sort coming back. My job paid $18.00 an hour and my health insurance was fully paid. That job is now being done in Taiwan for about one fifth of what I was making. I can’t compete with someone in China on wages and benefits. Nobody, not Obama or any other politician can create manufacturing jobs here, it has to be done by the industries. Service jobs & all that other stuff can’t compare with the wages lost when the manufacturing jobs went overseas. I’d like to see that situation change, but I’m not holding my breath. Regards to you.

I think I’m sensing a perhaps slightly overdone degree of anger within your response that just MIGHT justify your seeking some professional counselling.
And if the rage becomes UNCONTROLLABLE, let me know; I’ll pay you for flying lessons and also provide you with a map of IRS locations.
Might as well make yourself useful! 🙂

Curt Smith, a speechwriter for former president George H.W. Bush, said “This health care summit is tailor-made to present Obama at his rhetorical best”
Say what? “at his rhetorical best” and without a teleprompter which Republicans maintained was necessary or Obama would be unable to speak!
The Republicans are now trapped in their own web of lies and they are about to be outwitted by Obama once again.
They are playing checkers while Obama is playing chess.

I’m not sure you’re right about that: what do you think would happen if they Feds try to disarm the American People – the real American People that is, that ones who know their rights and who are the right color? Montana was talking that way awhile back – make no mistake, not everyone is going to just go belly up. And what if, in conjunction with this, they invoke the full Homeland Securtiy Act – with the end of travel, free entre into people’s homes, and the end of the internet as we know it?
Now as far as any Apocalypse goes, then you are right of course. That was one of the few bullshit things in the “Road” (book) – the marching army of cannibals. There just weren’t enough people left to support that. It just didn’t go with the conditions he described on every page. The roving bands were Ok, but not an army.
I heard another mind blowing 2012 coincidence: the charter of the Fed is due to run out in 2012. Have you heard this? Amazing if true, right up there with Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad citing 2012 as zero hour, when the Boomers would begin to draw on their non existent social security en masse, then panic and blow their IRA’s and 401k’s.
The Vault’s had some great ones lately about the coming Magnetic Storm. I always wanted to see the Northern Lights! Maybe we can use it to power our ATM’s and Christmas Lights.

Hi TrippTicket: You may be right about the pissant. He is either a kid, or he is someone who never matured. Nobody who wants to be taken seriously would talk to people like he does. He is also easily manipulated. You can invoke his flow of invective with just a little poke. He is incapable of letting an insult pass by. Further, I was able to nickname him the pissant and then get him to acknowledge it by insulting the pissant thereby causing him to fly into a rage. It’s easy to own him. I admit that it’s a guilty pleasure, but he deserves it for the simple lack of respect he has for people on this blog. (as an example, watch for his reply to this.) poke poke are you out there pissant? Can you control yourself little one? Regards to you, Tripp

Cowboy, I made a pass at this job thing earlier today. Maybe you didn’t see that. It’s no secret around here that I actually WANT things to slow down considerably. I honestly think our well-being as a species depends on it. I said earlier that our M.O. is basically ‘convert ecosystems into humans,’ and that can only last for so long. If we continue on the uber-consumptive pathway we will spoil our bed. Actually the bed is already spoiled; we need to be working hard on turning that ship before we hit the iceberg.
Nature always regulates her populations. Humans are clever, and have found ways around those system checks, but in the end it will just make the checks worse when they arrive.
I also listed an array of jobs that need to be created. See, that’s the problem I think most people are having with this. None of the jobs we’re used to doing have any meaning in a world of declining energy. Or very few do. But we are in desperate need of redundancy in a few fields – growing food being the biggie. 50% of U.S. farmers are retiring this decade, and the public outcry, the only ag industry still growing, is for local high-quality food. “Organics” before they were co-opted by the big players. The organic market share, and by proxy smaller farms, are tripling year-over-year, or were.
We have to do everything at smaller scales, so really, you could say that every job out there worth a damn needs a local counterpart. And many more people can get into these fields than before – it will be tougher for centralized mega-corps to corner any given market. The elephants are inflated, but they can’t stop the mice. That competition doesn’t scale for them. And many good people are starting cottage industries in the vacuums left by consolidation.
But I don’t get the idea that contraction will work like growth. We have to learn to think differently. Our ecosystem demands it of us. People looking for the bigger better deal, and itching to climb ladders, are probably going to hate this. People who are ready to slow down and live more deliberately should be in luck. And it will certainly require adapting to less buying power. But I don’t think that’s all bad.
Just different.

Did not the Master say a Prophet has no honoer in his own Country? And as Sophocles said, it is agony not to be believed. Have you read “The Camp of the Saints”? The author Jean Raspail was such a Prophet. He went down to the beach one day and spontaneously saw – in his mind’s eye – millions of Indians swarming off rusty old tankers onto the beach. A psychic experience of the first order. It isn’t that bad -yet. But an endless flow of small craft leaves Africa to wash up on a small island near Malta. Once there, they’re in.

“Ok. I know it hasn’t been long but, as expected, only two replys to my request for viable means to create real jobs in this country.”
Yeah, you’re right, I ducked out of that one. Didn’t have time to think.
I’m more upbeat about manufacturing jobs than most here. Japan and Germany have fairly decent manufacturing sectors, because they are recognized as producing high-quality products. I think the US can be a player, once you guys stop helping the enemy (you know, the one with the red flag).
So, if I was president, the first thing I’d do would be to axe corporations. I’d whip up a whole bunch of patriotism over this, and find a way to push small and medium-sized business (which tend to employ more people). Of course, I’d ‘out’ anyone that dares outsource as a traitor! I’m a name them and shame them guy; photos and addresses published, that sort of thing.
Next, I’d instigate a doing-business-with-dictators tax. I’d slap a certain percentage (and a little red warning sticker) on anything that comes from a country, like China, that bases its productivity of totalitarianism. I’d plough this into local industry, in some way, but above all, it would be to give our guys a more level playing field. I’d tell the nation: these guys over in China are your enemy.
I’d cut red tape and other bariers to industry, but I’d not wipe out environmental controls – look at China’s problems with heavy metals in the water and other toxins. I personally think environmental controls save money in the long run.
I’d do something to control big box stores like Wal*Mart. I’m a believer that when WallyWorld opens up, the town centre dies. I might have to get creative to shut them down – how about taxation based on square footage, and with a multiplier based on the ratio of imports to domestic goods?
I’d like to see railways coming back, which is a peak oil favourite. I’m not so much concerned with travel as bringing food into towns. In Victorian times there used to be a milk train, early in the morning, picking up the farmer’s supplies for the city. (I’m not a doomer; I think we will will be looking at something akin to the late Victorian era as oil fades away, with farms supplying an outlying region).
I’d like to promote smaller scale agriculture, along with the crafstmen needed to supply it. At the same time, I’d like this to be as mechanized as possible. I don’t think the future of the US is one of pesant farmers (if this is the case, millions will starve; believe me, it’s one of the worst ways do die).
I’ve got to admit my bias on healthcare – I’m English, and the welfare state over there is completely government run. In the US you have your for-profit hosptials taking a cut AND the for-profit insurance companies. You’d call it socialized, but I’d look into providing government-run hospitals in communities (this is, I know, prohibitively expensive to instigate, but once running, would save money). I’d wait my time, and nationalize hospitals when I’d think I’d get away with it.
I’d do away with cable television. I think once people aren’t being brainwashed into buying fashionable crap, they would revert to quality, long-lasting US-made items. Man, I have faith in the people! You’ve just got to kill the idiot box first.
I’d instigate some sort of urban renewal program, to get people living again in the inner cities. Brownfield sites are key to feeding the nation, ‘cos agricultural land is going to be at a premium. A big step would be to losen up zoning laws that currently push people into building single level retail outlets – check out the Vancouver model, of condos alongside office blocks (which works too well, with some offices moving out to cheaper sites in the ‘burbs).
To open up the inner cities, I’d probaby have to do something to tackle alcohol and drugs and gangs. In the first instance, run some kind of real rehabilitation program (the carot) that will be free, or court mandated, and then wield the stick. I’m in favour of removing things like citizenship for citizens – and having non-citizens deported.
I think people wouldn’t have too much of a problem paying taxes if they were (1) reasonable, (2) being spent on their local economy and (3) everyone was paying the same percentage of their earnings. I’m going to be called a socialist, but I think it’s really about old-fashioned conservative values – I’m a paternalistic conservative that keeps being mistaken for a red, due to the strange times we live in. When I’m president, the boss will earn more than the factory hands, but is not a millionaire that doesn’t pay a penny back into the system.
Oh. . . and blowjobs in the Oval Office.

Seawolf,
Have you ever noticed in American
commercials that the wife is always
the “genius” and the husband is
always the doofus. Typical scene:
Husband is clumsily fumbling around
under the sink NOT fixing the plumbing
problem. Wifey shows up with Drano in
hand and says, “Honey, you could’ve
just used Drano”. Husband gives a
hearty “Duh, okay”.
On high-tech TV shows like NCIS they
actually expect the audience to give
credibility to the idea that a Goth
like the “Abbey” character is a world
class codebreaker and knower of all
things cybernetic. Right. I’ve
taught around five THOUSAND programmers
and while some women are undeniably good,
they are NEVER the groundbreaking creators.
Television is submitting a farcical image
of gender (non)-differences to the
impressionable public. Oh, yeah, right …
that knockout that looks hotter than
Heidi Klum is an eighth degree black
belt in Tae Kwon Do, read every play by
Shakespeare, and is a savant in Combinatorics.
If TV truly mimicked modern life, most
people, especially women, would NEVER
watch it.
Just as most people cannot have a non-
duplicitous discussion about race, the
same thing can be said about GENDER.
Sarah Palin is STUPID. During her
debate with Biden (who I detest for
other reasons), I could not PARSE half
of her sentences.
Can you picture a doofus like Palin trying
to joust with Vladimir Putin?? That’s high
farce at its finest. Putin is a true
scholar. Palin is beloved for her
“folksiness” which means that she
can empathize with everyone’s piggishness
and ignorance so we all love her.
Piffle.
Eleuthero

“what do you think would happen if they Feds try to disarm the American People – the real American People that is”
Actually I don’t think anything would happen at this point. I mean, sure there would be legal and political fallout, but there wouldn’t be armed resistance. I’m say this with confidence because the experiment has already been run. After Katrina, state & Federal forces confiscated every gun they could find in the New Orleans area regardless of legal status. This incident has begun infamous in some circles. In fact, I believe it was the main stimulus behind the creation of the Oath Keepers organization.
No licensed gun owner resisted the seizures and (as far as is known) none of the men in uniform refused the order to violate the Second Amendment rights of their fellow citizens. Which just goes to show what all of that is really worth in the post-American USA. Personally, I’m convinced the average US “citizen” couldn’t define the word constitutional if their life depended on it.
This could all change over the next few years if the empire begins to visibly unravel, but right now the masses are still used to doing what they’re told in return for their bread and circuses. And this goes double for the police and military….
“the charter of the Fed is due to run out in 2012. Have you heard this? Amazing if true,”
I’ve heard it; I just don’t know what to make of it. The possibility doesn’t violate anything I know about the character of our rulers but that doesn’t mean it’s accurate. I’d need to hear this confirmed from someone with the technical knowledge to evaluate it.
“The Vault’s had some great ones lately about the coming Magnetic Storm.”
Yet another subject I am NOT technically competent to evaluate. Although in this case I know NASA has confirmed such storms are possible and would do incredible damage if one hit us. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. Still I like the spectacle of our Lords and Masters covering their own asses. It’s so reassuring to know where I stand in the social pyramid…
Did you see the thing he posted about the Brits moving a huge collection of rare books into a salt mine?vault-co.blogspot.com/

Job creation huh?
First thing I would do is subsidize the conversion of as many homes and businesses heated by fuel oil and natural gas to ground-loop heat pumps as physically possible. Since these systems generally pay for themselves all that would really be needed is zero-interest loans repayable by means of a utility bill on residents. Installers for this program could be paid a flat rate per btu capacity installed and fraud could be subject to severe criminal penalties. This would put cash into the hands of american workers and property owners immediately. Cash that would be paid back better than one-hundred percent in savings on imported fuel within ten years.
Then, white roof conversions wherever air-conditioning is widely used in the summer. Followed by solar PV panel installation on every residential and small business roof physically possible. Electricity is INCOME.
Legislate a feed-in tariff for wind power and pay for it with a $150/ton tax on coal. Since most of the wind power money would go to rural, red-state areas along with the maintenance jobs I think this would shut up some of the whining.
Overshoot road rights-of-way with light overhead rail capable of handling loads of 2-5 metric tons. Run computer controlled Personal Rapid Transit and Cargo pods on these lines connecting residential areas, business districts and heavy rail. Since roads aren’t disturbed businesses and existing infrastructure can remain in place. Normal light rail installation involves remodeling everything under the roadbed at enormous cost. Savings on road maintenance and shipping costs would be immense.
Limit CAFOs to 200 cattle or equivalent weight of other livestock or poultry. Require 100% on-site containment and recycling of nitrates from manure. Meat prices will go up but virtually all of the increase will be paid to rural labor supporting small towns. Break up the meat packing industry to little pieces while we’re at it. Better yet outlaw CAFO’s entirely and require on site feed production for all livestock operations.
Everything listed here should be designed such that every cent spent is eventually reclaimed as fuel cost savings or wages for US workers. Which is why it will never pass muster with a US congress. The best government money can buy.

Greetings:
If you want to experience some peak oil doomer moments. Do the following: I saw a live performance of Jim’s The Big Slide, and last night at 10pm went to the 2 dollar movie house and saw The Road. The movie started when 2 teenager women walked in with 2 kids that looked around 7 years old. I drove home listeining to Sean Hannity complaining about the Obama recession. Whew,doomer fill for the week. Thanks to all those brave souls on here who are putting forth ideas and suggestions for the upcoming it’s going to be an interesting times.

I see pissant is back with his constructive criticism (not!!!) Not Mommy is now OneEyeOpen. What happened, did Jim kick you off again?
Why do you keep coming here and wasting everyone’s time with your drivel?
You do realise that nobody now takes you seriously on this forum!
Once a pissant…..
I’ll check in later as you’ll no doubt be calling me a FUCKTARD

RecoverylessRecovery replied to comment from DeeJones | February 24, 2010 8:59 PM | Reply
I think I’m sensing a perhaps slightly overdone degree of anger within your response that just MIGHT justify your seeking some professional counselling.
Gee, how astute, asshole. Sure I’m pissed, I’m pissed at what a fucking mess GWB made of this country and the world, and walked away from it with no consequence.
I’m pissed that Obama, instead of having the Justice department start investigations into Wall St’s involvement in the financial mess we are in now, decided that healthcare reform would be a great distraction for the masses.
I’m pissed that there are even fucking assholes walking around such as yourself.
So, yeah, I’m very pissed off. So go fuck yourself.

“Ron Paul is completely out of the mainstream with his conspiracy theories about the Fed which have absolutely no basis in fact.”
In Deception and Abuse at the Fed, Robert Auerbach, a former banking committee investigator, recounts major instances of Fed mismanagement and abuse of power that were exposed by Rep. Gonzalez, including:
•Blocking Congress and the public from holding powerful Fed officials accountable by falsely declaring–for 17 years–it had no transcripts of its meetings;
•Manipulating the stock and bond markets in 1994 under cover of a preemptive strike against inflation;
•Allowing 5.5 billion to be sent to Saddam Hussein from a small Atlanta branch of a foreign bank–the result of faulty bank examination practices by the Fed;
•Stonewalling Congressional investigations and misleading the Washington Post about the 6,300 found on the Watergate burglars.
Being “out of the mainstream” seems to me more like a prerequisite for finding the truth than for avoiding it.huffingtonpost.com/j-bradley-jansen/bizarre-bernanke_b_475230.html

JK,
What’s “civil” got to do with any factions attempt to maintain the status-quo – I mean what “civil war?” We lost most of what represented the “rule of law” between 2000 and 2008.
And now, with a change of administration we see the scope and depth of mendacity that permeates are Federal institutions.
Its just all so fucking hysterical. When history rolls the credits to this “alice in wonderland” chapter of civilization – it will be the American people listed as producers.

Boy are we fucked!
But seriously, folks, great column, once again, if not abjectly depressing. But never you mind, I’m a cheery sort and while I keep one vigilant eye on the national and geopolitical picture, I’m naive enough to focus the bulk of my efforts on the hyper local.
Though I think I’d look kind of hot dressed in cammo and packing heat, and I might sleep easier with a bunker full of organic garbanzos, I don’t think it does my family, community or the larger context much good for me to muchtake a survivalist approach. A little, but not much.
To that end, John Michael Greer’s book “The Ecotechnic Future: Envisioning a Post-Peak World,” has some practical advice that resonates with me. In Greer’s book, he advises that one focus now on cultivating an array of hobbies that have post-peak relevance. If you look to what already interests you, you might discover some kind of “world made by hand” version.
For example, I’ve long been a journalist and graphic designer, and my beginnings were in good old cut and paste lay up. Now, of course, I’m more often found behind a Mac. But, I have my eye on an antique letter press that I must have and that I will start making cards and other specialty documents on. Mastering this art/skill now will, I think, make me more poised to take up a local paper or other forms of communication in our small hamlet, ink and paper resource questions notwithstanding. I have a few other intersts I’m cultivating as well, wool, beer, radio…diversify, you know.
There’s a million examples if you put your head to it. My own thoughts, given the apt phrase “the long emergency” is that there’s time, or let’s say, relative time. Of course any form of shit could hit any kind of fan soon, and usually will most unexpectedly. But I’d rather be actively grounded in present experiences, (Read, “be here now”) than freeze up as a slave to a mind gripped by fear and a future steeped in uncertainty.
On the political front, I could talk on and on ad nauseum about that, so I wont bore you on that score at the moment. In short, my own prediction is that the first significant political leader in America–and by significant I mean way, way high up, high enough to matter to the national conversation, to dare to utter the phrase “Peak OIL” and then to keep it on his or her lips fairly continually is going to own the conversation in this country. God help us that its not Sarah Palin, and that the band of Tea Party miscreants with their mixed messages and confused agenda don’t coopt it for their own. Then we’re really, really fucked.
Meantime, I love a column that uses words like inveigh and infarcts and I truly believe Jim is a very important voice for our times. Now, back to work…

Lee sez:
“Why do you keep coming here and wasting everyone’s time with your drivel?”
And why would you waste time with my wasting time?
“I’ll check in later as you’ll no doubt be calling me a FUCKTARD.”
So, you are going to check back? You want feedback from someone who is wasting your time? OK. And you want me to call you a FUCKTARD? OK, you are a FUCKTARD! (And a M-O-R-O-N, I might add.)

“The Republicans are now trapped in their own web of lies and they are about to be outwitted by Obama once again”
The proof sir, will be in the pudding. However, you lacking taste, will have absolutely no idea of the pudding’s goodness or badness.

asoka-herself sez:
“Corporate America divides up labor, with a top-down command structure. The corporations even call them divisions: marketing division, sales division, etc. No doubt about it: General Electric, AT&T, Exxon Mobil, WalMart, etc. are all socialist.”
Participation (employment) in the private sector is voluntary. I nor asoka-herself, HAVE to work for any of the above. When my government starts “dividing things up” that is a totally different matter.
Try thinking a bit before you post, asoka-herself.

“Gee, is that all you have to add to the discussion? Why don’t you go back to masturbating to the Sara Palin videos on YouTube and leave the rest of us alone, ok?”
Of course this is an the highest example of the exalted debating society from which you polished your craft? Puleeeze. Pot to kettle, “Black”.

Pissant said: “Participation (employment) in the private sector is voluntary.”
Oh, really. Have you not seen the lines of people seeking work. When jobs in the private sector are made available, especially in rural areas, there is no other employment option.
There often is no choice about where you work, especially when you have no money to pay the rent, no money to move to a different geographic area. You work for the factory, call center, etc. offering employment.
If you want to eat, you work… So now you are going to tell me eating is voluntary?
Your argument ignores hard economic realities about the relationship between laborers and employers and human physiology.

Trip,
I wasn’t trying to put words in your mouth or pin you to any particular position. Perhaps you are feeling a little more defensive then necessary….could it be that too much time on this blog can have that effect on people? Hummmm……
However, If I look at your last paragraph one could infer you regard let’s say, driving SUV’s as morally unjustifiable, even in a world of “free unlimited energy”. While it might be “better” in many way to down size our lives, in such an unlimited energy world it would not be a moral decision necessarily.
I’m just making this point because, regarding our lives as inherently hubristic does imply a moral decision has been made on your part, and that would seem to actually get in the way of rational conclusions about future energy choices. I’m not against moral choices, I just think it’s critical to recognize the difference between a moral choice and a rational one, and when they should take precedence. Let’s just say that understanding that distinction provides a little more “space” in our decision making framework.
Personally, I live pretty “small” considering my economic and social opportunities, but I take pains to try and keep myself from getting to dug in to any moral conclusions that might unnecessarily limit my view. My experience and philosophy is, anything can appear, and often does. So I choose what I “like”, and what my philosophy supports, “loosely” so as not to be grasping onto one thing too tightly, and suffering the distortion such rigidity naturally entails. Peace out.

Nice article on our economic connundrum, and what to do about it. Of course, neither of our political parties is even close to any discussion which addresses our long term systemic problems, and given how disfunctional both of them, and the so-called “national discussion” are, I wouldn’t count on that changing without a major crisis.ft.com/cms/s/0/479d81ea-20b2-11df-9775-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

“If you want to eat, you work…”
No you don’t. You go downtown and pick up your food stamps. Then you schlep back to your government subsidized housing.
“Oh, really. Have you not seen the lines of people seeking work”
Yeah, I have.They are generally in areas where the government, so fucked things up (demanding banks give loans via Freddie and Fannie to people who had no prayer of re-paying) that their actions led us to where we currently are. Or towns like Detroit where the government so over regulated the product (And now controls 2 of 3 remaining companies) and unions demanded such outrageous perks (and the companies stupidly complied) that they priced the products into the stratosphere.
Of course the localized governments (Detroit) when the plants were humming promised and provided more and more goodies to the citizenry. How were these goodies to be paid for? Why by the manufacturers (via taxation, which contributed to the rising price of their products) and the poor schlubs (again by taxation) that put the products together. Did the governing bodies ever reevaluate their expenditures when their local industries had down years? Hell no. Were parks temporarily closed, people laid off, expenses scrutinized? Nope. We’ll just keep humming along. In fact (the thought seemed to be) since we’re feeling pinched, we’ll just RAISE taxes.
MORE government. MORE taxes. NO scrutinization regarding expenditures has brought us to where we are. And YOU insist on more poison be administered to the patient as a cure. And that is because YOU are an idiot.

Email from a Professor of American Studies:
I am always being asked to grade Obama’s presidency. In place of offering him a grade, I put together a list of his accomplishments thus far. I think you would agree that it is very impressive. His first six months have been even more active than FDR’s or LBJ’s, the two standards for such assessments. Yet, there is little media attention given to much of what he has done. Of late, the media is focusing almost exclusively on Obama’s critics, without holding them responsible for the uncivil, unconstructive tone of their disagreements or without holding the previous administration responsible for getting us in such a deep hole. The misinformation and venom that now passes for political reporting and civic debate is beyond description.
As such, there is a need to set the record straight. What most impresses me is the fact that Obama has accomplished so much not from a heavy-handed or top-down approach, but from a style that has institutionalized efforts to reach across the aisle, encourage vigorous debate, and utilize town halls and panels of experts in the policy-making process. Beyond the accomplishments, the process is good for democracy as our democratic processes have been battered and bruised in recent years. Let me know if I missed anything in the list (surely I have).
Robert
1. Ordered all federal agencies to undertake a study and make recommendations for ways to cut spending
2. Ordered a review of all federal operations to identify and cut wasteful spending and practices
3. Instituted enforcement for equal pay for women
4. Beginning the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq
5. Families of fallen soldiers have expenses covered to be on hand when the body arrives at Dover AFB
6. Ended media blackout on war casualties; reporting full information
7. Ended media blackout on covering the return of fallen soldiers to Dover AFB; the media is now permitted to do so pending adherence to respectful rules and approval of fallen soldier’s family
8. The White House and federal government are respecting the Freedom of Information Act
9. Instructed all federal agencies to promote openness and transparency as much as possible
10. Limits on lobbyist’s access to the White House
11. Limits on White House aides working for lobbyists after their tenure in the administration
12. Ended the previous stop-loss policy that kept soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan longer than their enlistment date
13. Phasing out the expensive F-22 war plane and other outdated weapons systems, which weren’t even used or needed in Iraq/Afghanistan
14. Removed restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research
15. Federal support for stem-cell and new biomedical research
16. New federal funding for science and research labs
17. States are permitted to enact federal fuel efficiency standards above federal standards
18.. Increased infrastructure spending (roads, bridges, power plants) after years of neglect
19. Funds for high-speed, broadband Internet access to K-12 schools
20. New funds for school construction
21. The prison at Guantanamo Bay is being phased out
22. US Auto industry rescue plan
23. Housing rescue plan
24. $789 billion economic stimulus plan
25. The public can meet with federal housing insurers to refinance (the new plan can be completed in one day) a mortgage if they are having trouble paying
26. US financial and banking rescue plan
27. The secret detention facilities in Eastern Europe and elsewhere are being closed
28. Ended the previous policy; the US now has a no torture policy and is in compliance with the Geneva Convention standards
29. Better body armor is now being provided to our troops
30. The missile defense program is being cut by $1.4 billion in 2010
31. Restarted the nuclear nonproliferation talks and building back up the nuclear inspection infrastructure/protocols
32. Reengaged in the treaties/agreements to protect the Antarctic
33. Reengaged in the agreements/talks on global warming and greenhouse gas emissions
34. Visited more countries and met with more world leaders than any president in his first six months in office
35. Successful release of US captain held by Somali pirates; authorized the SEALS to do their job
36. US Navy increasing patrols off Somali coast
37. Attractive tax write-offs for those who buy hybrid automobiles
38. Cash for clunkers program offers vouchers to trade in fuel inefficient, polluting old cars for new cars; stimulated auto sales
39. Announced plans to purchase fuel efficient American-made fleet for the federal government
40. Expanded the SCHIP program to cover health care for 4 million more children
41. Signed national service legislation; expanded national youth service program
42. Instituted a new policy on Cuba, allowing Cuban families to return home to visit loved ones
43. Ended the previous policy of not regulating and labeling carbon dioxide emissions
44. Expanding vaccination programs
45. Immediate and efficient response to the floods in North Dakota and other natural disasters
46. Closed offshore tax safe havens
47. Negotiated deal with Swiss banks to permit US government to gain access to records of tax evaders and criminals
48. Ended the previous policy of offering tax benefits to corporations who outsource American jobs; the new policy is to promote in-sourcing to bring jobs back
49. Ended the previous practice of protecting credit card companies; in place of it are new consumer protections from credit card industry’s predatory practices
50. Energy producing plants must begin preparing to produce 15% of their energy from renewable sources
51. Lower drug costs for seniors
52. Ended the previous practice of forbidding Medicare from negotiating with drug manufacturers for cheaper drugs; the federal government is now realizing hundreds of millions in savings
53. Increasing pay and benefits for military personnel
54. Improved housing for military personnel
55. Initiating a new policy to promote federal hiring of military spouses
56. Improved conditions at Walter Reed Military Hospital and other military hospitals
57. Increasing student loans
58. Increasing opportunities in AmeriCorps program
59. Sent envoys to Middle East and other parts of the world that had been neglected for years; reengaging in multilateral and bilateral talks and diplomacy
60. Established a new cyber security office
61. Beginning the process of reforming and restructuring the military 20 years after the Cold War to a more modern fighting force; this includes new procurement policies, increasing size of military, new technology and cyber units and operations, etc.
62. Ended previous policy of awarding no-bid defense contracts
63. Ordered a review of hurricane and natural disaster preparedness
64. Established a National Performance Officer charged with saving the federal government money and making federal operations more efficient
65. Students struggling to make college loan payments can have their loans refinanced
66. Improving benefits for veterans
67. Many more press conferences and town halls and much more media access than previous administration
68. Instituted a new focus on mortgage fraud
69. The FDA is now regulating tobacco
70. Ended previous policy of cutting the FDA and circumventing FDA rules
71. Ended previous practice of having White House aides rewrite scientific and environmental rules, regulations, and reports
72. Authorized discussions with North Korea and private mission by Pres. Bill Clinton to secure the release of two Americans held in prisons
73. Authorized discussions with Myanmar and mission by Sen. Jim Web to secure the release of an American held captive
74. Making more loans available to small businesses
75. Established independent commission to make recommendations on slowing the costs of Medicare
76. Appointment of first Latina to the Supreme Court
77. Authorized construction/opening of additional health centers to care for veterans
78. Limited salaries of senior White House aides; cut to $100,000
79. Renewed loan guarantees for Israel
80.. Changed the failing/status quo military command in Afghanistan
81. Deployed additional troops to Afghanistan
82. New Afghan War policy that limits aerial bombing and prioritizes aid, development of infrastructure, diplomacy, and good government practices by Afghans
83. Announced the long-term development of a national energy grid with renewable sources and cleaner, efficient energy production
84. Returned money authorized for refurbishment of White House offices and private living quarters
85. Paid for redecoration of White House living quarters out of his own pocket
86. Held first Seder in White House
87. Attempting to reform the nation’s healthcare system which is the most expensive in the world yet leaves almost 50 million without health insurance and millions more under insured
88. Has put the ball in play for comprehensive immigration reform
89. Has announced his intention to push for energy reform
90. Has announced his intention to push for education reform
Oh, and he built a swing set for the girls outside the Oval Office!
Robert P. Watson, Ph.D. Coordinator of American Studies,
Lynn University, Boca Raton, Florida

Apologies in advance for another lengthy thread. . .
Seen a few threads recently calling George W Bush a moron and Obama a genius.
Thing about Bush is that on his first attempt into office – his 1978 bid for the House of Representatives in Texas – he lost by a landslide (coming up 6,000 votes short when 103,000 were cast) because he was seen by voters as a Yale-educated, out-of-touch rich man’s son. Too smart by far. He went off and created some independent oil companies, worked on his daddy’s political campaign, bought a big hat and a ranch, and reinvented himself as man of the people. Sarah Palin is doing the same sort of thing right now.
So he’s a moron because of the Iraq invasion?
Look at timeline:
The Euro was launched in 1995, specifically to become the new US dollar (and is currently used daily by some 327 million Europeans, having more banknotes in circulation than the US dollar).
Saddam Hussein announced in 2000 that he’s going to trade Oil in the Euro. Here’s an item from Time in November 2000: time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998512,00.html
The US dollar has only one thing going for it – oil is traded in the dollar. This means countries that want to buy oil have to have dollars. Which means they must sell to the US; kind of at the wrong end of a shotgun, ‘cos if the oil imports falter, the government gets overthrown. The US only has to keep the pressed running, churning out more dollars. Hey, an economy without actually manufacturing anything!
If the oil producing nations followed Iraq, then the US essentially doesn’t have an economy any more. Let’s face it, most of them would like to punish you for having a boner for Israel (giving them money and back-up at the UN; without this, the Israel government would have to be a bit more conciliatory to its ethnically Arab citizens).
Whatever Bush spent on the invasion is nothing compared to the costs of allowing the Europeans and Mid East nations to come together like this. (This is nothing to do with the morality of the situation; I honestly believe Bush will one day have to answer to his creator over the death and suffering that came about from the war).
So, why do you think run-and-fetch boy Obama is still in Iraq? What’s the first thing a newly formed government over there will do, once they are allowed to make their own decisions? Care to bet on trading in Euros?
Obama is over a barrel. He cannot alter the direction of US foreign policy.
(I’m not a pro-Bush or anti-Obama person, by the way.)

Oh, the tea party guy knows what socialism is. That means when he holds up signs accusing Wall Street funded, insurance company subsidizer Barack Obama of being a socialist, he knows it’s a lie!
You stretched out a hand in friendship, but when I responded, you freaked like a conditioned rat.
I talked about changing society to benefit everyone, not just the 1%, and that scared you.
“No, master, I ain’t listening to that talk, master. I just want you to provide me with a job that gives me money to buy stuff, the more the better. I don’t care what the job is, I don’t care where the stuff is made, I don’t care what impact the stuff has on the environment. That’s all commie talk. Just provide me with a job, and I’ll serve you on my knees.”
Yeah, that’s why I only went to one tea party.
Like I said, they’re hateful people.

I hate these pepol like you who put down all us true LIBERTY loving Americans who are finaly standing up for themselves and America and are going to take America back from the satan loving liberals who dont love America but want to live in a Marxist Nazi country where Gods laws are forsaken and a mans hard work is for nothing and there guns are taken away along with your house and guns and they wont let you have children without goverment aproval and when you get old they kill you all becase we “elected” a Muslim Marxist Nazi who isnt even a true American and you bet were mad as hell and just you wait God will have His say in all this and restore America her liberty and abolish the IRS and the fedral reserve and we can live free or die!

Good lord, I can go through this professor’s list and make mince meat out of practically every lpoint. But I’m not going to do that. I’ll take on any three from the list that anyone cares to choose. First poster wins.

Thanks for coming to my defense, asoka, but, as I pointed out before, I am a socialist.
My English ancestors were the first thrown off their land, to be forced into the cities to provide cheap labor for the mills and factories and mines. (Still going on today, as we know in Haiti)
Damn right they invented socialism!!
Peasants, used to sharing the labor and the harvest, realized that labor saving machinery should be used to save labor, not throw people out of work.
Only generations of submission to capital creates people like cowboyjack, unable to think beyond craven petitions for “jobs” from the ruling class.
Pathetic crawling to the rich for handouts.
That’s not for me. That is betraying my ancestors.
Besides, they don’t need all of us, now that they have automation and robots. We are surplus labor, and all the begging in the world won’t make them bestow us with jobs for all

“We are surplus labor, and all the begging in the world won’t make them bestow us with jobs for all…
Hmmm….uses term bestows. Has the ring of entitlement. How bouts gettin’ some skills that can’t be refused by potential employers? Or start your own thang. I mean you being so brilliant and all?

You’re finally standing up? Show me the evidence. I don’t see any standing up. I see craven conformity. You birchers stood up in the Cold War? You published books. You stood up against old Jimmy Carter? You published a book. That’s all you do: publish books. You want a nickel for your every word. It’s a business; that’s all it is. You’re not a movement; you’re not even a bunch of guys getting rowdy in a bar. All you do is sell books from Seal Beach, California, last time I looked.
So maybe you need God to lend a helping hand, ’cause all you do is fuck all.

“Good lord, I can go through this professor’s list and make mince meat out of practically every lpoint. But I’m not going to do that. I’ll take on any three from the list that anyone cares to choose. First poster wins.”
Let’s look at just the one – “89. Has announced his intention to push for energy reform.”
So the guy – who probably earns a living as a low-level communications guy within the administration – comes on a peak oil form, and lists “energy reform” way, way down the list.
I’m a journalist (well, I still freelance) and I can count weasel words all through that: announced his intention to push for this thing he calls “energy reform.” What the fuck does that mean.
I’d guess this spammy list is appearing on a whole bunch of sites across the political blogging universe right now.

Thank you. It is a silly list. Compiled by a silly, liberal professor who thought he was giving actual examples of Obama’s purposeful agenda. It is laughable. It is an example of the silliness that is ripping our nation apart.

Did you ever read them books? You should. Then maybe you wouldnt talk like a damn fool. Evidence? Its right in front of your commie nose! Just look at the Tea Partys going on all over and the millions of LIBERTY loving Americans that are STANDING UP. Just listen to a true American patriot like Glen Beck who tells it like it is. Gun sales are up and freedom is coming back to the hearts of Christian Americans everywhere in Christian America because were not going to stand for an African Muslim Marxist Nazi killing babies and old folks and teaching socializm in our schools and throwing out the Bible and taking away our FREEDOM and the right to defend our familys and do what we want and live the way God intended us to do as Americans.

The only FREEDOM loving American here who makes any sense and is willing to STAND UP to all you liberal Muslim Marxist Obama loving fucktards is One Eye Open and hes smarter than all of you put together and has the balls to tell it like it is and laugh at all your dangerous dumb ideas.

Re the good professor’s list. . . (I still think he’s somewhere low in the food chain in a communications deptartment, and no professor at all.)
Am I the only one who thinks of the weasel words they put on boxes of toothpaste?
“89. Has announced his intention to push for energy reform.”
“Helps fight the bacteria that cause tooth decay.”
Helps fight? Intention to push for?
I’m announcing my intention to push for winning the lottery and look into financial reform (my own finances, of course!)

John Birch | February 25, 2010 12:20 PM | Reply
The only FREEDOM loving American here who makes any sense and is willing to STAND UP to all you liberal Muslim Marxist Obama loving fucktards is One Eye Open and hes smarter than all of you put together and has the balls to tell it like it is and laugh at all your dangerous dumb ideas.
Ok, now I know that this is a joke. Ha! Ha! Hee! Hee!
But I don’t see them “standing up”, I see them bending over and grabbing their ankles. Just a bunch of shinny asses up in the air, no wonder the USA smells like ass….

Yep, sure read them books. Had to order them myself in the days before t’internet. Hard to find out what was going on in those days, and now it’s even harder! I made an effort; the credit is all mine. You weren’t around. Did nothing for me, lest you forget. So don’t go calling me names.
You were never meant to have no freedom. Alexander Hamilton queered the deal right at the beginning. His ideas won out. Federalism, and central banking. Suck on it. For a time it didn’t matter. The people (that’s you) were running on folk wisdom that had been handed down for generations: call it an Anglo-Saxon suspicion of centralized control, and the many other virtues of good Americans. You kept your rifles oiled and your Bibles well-thumbed.
But that was then. Now you eat at McDonald’s and your daughters are runarounds.
What you didn’t know is that the Founding Fathers weren’t Christians. They were Deists. They didn’t like Christianity, and some of them, Jefferson and Madison particularly, were hostile to it.
Envy the Amish: they know how to cultivate the land and keep their distance. You didn’t. Epic fail.
Don’t start blaming nobody, nohow. You wanted your safe jobs and boob tube and you believed that if you obeyed and went to church it would be fine. You didn’t care about the environment. Your cousin worked for Raytheon. Your nephew helped clean up the mess at Love Canal.
God doesn’t care about you. America is a failed Masonic experiment. Shoot your way out of it. Good luck with that.

Peak oil is a real problem. There is a lot of discussion about when the “peak” will occur or if it has already occurred in the past.
However, we are facing a more severe, gut- wrenching problem. This is Peak Prosperity. Prosperity peaked in the United States in 1969, hit a plateau for a few years then started an increasingly steep decline. The decline became very steep in the past few years, impacting the middle class the most. Overall, general well-being of citizens in general followed this curve.
Among the causes:
1. A “new” country that has depleted a major portion of its natural resources, including oil and increasingly has turned to buying these resources from abroad and increasingly on credit.
2. The easiest to get and thus cheapest resources were stripped out first, leaving more difficult to mine and process and hence more expensive raw materials for the future.
3. A steep decline in morality since the 1960s. A huge uptick in single parent or broken families
has resulted in a compromised culture based mainly on materialism.
4. The event of cable television and the internet that brought new sources of knowledge and entertainment but had the substantial negative side effects of information overload, declining physical and mental health, obesity and a loss of “family and community time”.
5. Prayer tossed out of school.
6. Population increasing above the long-term carrying capacity (population overshoot).
7. A government that has over extended itself with a debt load of almost unimaginable size struggling to pay the cost of many wars and social programs that are far beyond its means.
8. A banking system that suffers from all the above, driven by greed and profit at all cost.
9. A government mostly bought and paid for by huge corporations.
10. The government and the American people have became highly polarized into two blocs, the “red” and the “blue” or the “right” and the “left” or whatever you want to call it. This high degree of polarization and lack of “bipartisan” cooperation has quite literally frozen any progress in tackling the many critical issues that face the country and the world.
This economic/social cycle has spanned many decades and presidents. I see a need for some serious restructuring in the near future lest there be a total collapse.
Let’s start restructuring, shall we? We have a new low-energy world to transition into, hopefully a brighter, happier, more peaceful and harmonious world. Our children need it!

Please elaborate on why your point 5, prayer tossed out of schools, has contributed to economic decline or why its reinstatement, a presumed part of the restructuring you advocate, would help lead to a “brighter, happier, more peaceful and harmonious world”.
PS. I happen to be aware that 1080 is a number of magical significance. It is the number of the Virgin Mary. Also, the number of lunar power. It is the number in opposition to the number of solar power, 666.
Maybe you’d like to stop fucking around and tell us why that species of auto-hypnosis called prayer isn’t worth dumping on the ash-heap of history, while you’re about it.

“Gee, how astute, asshole. Sure I’m pissed, I’m pissed at what a fucking mess GWB made of this country and the world, and walked away from it with no consequence.
I’m pissed that Obama, instead of having the Justice department start investigations into Wall St’s involvement in the financial mess we are in now, decided that healthcare reform would be a great distraction for the masses.
I’m pissed that there are even fucking assholes walking around such as yourself.
So, yeah, I’m very pissed off. So go fuck yourself.”
More than ‘pissed-off’ I’d say you’ve become UNHINGED.
And that’s TOO BAD because I completely agree with you on Points points 1 & 2. But now that you’ve become a raging lunatic you’re really not useful to anyone.
UNLESS of course you’re willing to strap on a bomb vest and make yourself useful at the local IRS office.
Look into that option, will ya?

Mars candy company:
reclusive billionaire forest mars isnt my hero and providing sugarey foods and alpo is his mission.
if thats what permacuklture has to offer ill pass, at least on his version of it.

the article is in this weeks WSJ if you want to check, a farmer said his well started at 5′ now its 50 feet. if anyone here has accurate info on how many farmer suicides have occurred in india/ elsewhere can you please post?
however its not all adm/mont/duponts fault, its also the fault of the indian govt.
some illiterate farmers [1000 generation on the land] dont know the pesticides are dangerous to apply.
the WSJ article took a long look at urea, the weapon of choice.

Boy that long list above is a joke.
Anyway, in response to my question about how to create real jobs. A couple of you, Shambles, I think mainly, has some good ideas that you would like to implement. Let me adknowledge here that I agree with you that the “new” jobs won’t be like the “old” jobs that our former leaders (mostly Bill Clinton) sold to China via Charlie Trie so that he could get elected. Some other ideas, from another poster, were not so good. You can’t control cow poop buddy.
Back to the question though, I specifically asked for “steps” in the process of creating jobs. Couple of you presented some good ideas for projects but were lacking on the “how to” accomplish them part. I can agree with about 70% of the ideas presented but I want to know HOW you plan to get them started.
One poster said he didn’t think folks would mind more taxes if they were kept local. Absolutly NOT! Remember TEA! Taxed Enough Already! Some of your ideas about recouping costs through energy savings are pretty good but need some work. Those will likely be long term payouts too so, where to get the inital funding? And specifically what steps will you take to accomplish all of that construction?
Who will perform the construction and how? Will there be workers (i.e. “jobs”)? How will they be compensated for their toil? Who will be responsible for construction process, quality, materials, equipment, etc.?
How do you plan to accomplish these ideas?
Note to WageLaborer: I respect you for admitting that you are, in fact, a socialist and not progressive. Sounds like your ancestors were likely subject to some form of slavery as opposed to being semi-equal members of some socialist community. I am sure that was extremely difficult for all of you. I would think that you would have grown to dislike that way of life rather than cling to it as shown in your comment here:
“Only generations of submission to capital creates people like cowboyjack, unable to think beyond craven petitions for “jobs” from the ruling class.
Pathetic crawling to the rich for handouts.
That’s not for me. That is betraying my ancestors.”
I am most sorry that you view the working folks in this country as “pathetic crawling to the rich for handouts.” And you also mention “”jobs” from the ruling class”.
Sadly, you are likely never to be happy in this country.
I thank God every day for the brave men and women that have fought and died to keep these United States free from socialism. And I suspect that the vast majority of us would do the same again if called upon.
Peace be with us all.

‘ A huge uptick in single parent or broken families
has resulted in a compromised culture based mainly on materialism.’
I have to disagree. as soon as women had the option of careers they opted out of ‘ misery marriages’.

Visited more countries and met with more world leaders than any president in his first six months in office
37. Attractive tax write-offs for those who buy hybrid automobiles
38. Cash for clunkers program offers vouchers to trade in fuel inefficient, polluting old cars for new cars; stimulated auto sales
3 here my dear.

“Saddam Hussein announced in 2000 that he’s going to trade Oil in the Euro.”
Do you say everything so succinctly? This is THE reason we’re at war. Period. The dollar wouldn’t exist today if oil was traded in euros.
Now I think the question becomes, are we OK with that? Short answer: (I’m not!)

“reclusive billionaire forest mars isnt my hero”
Asia, I didn’t say to buy his junk food. I just said it’s nice to see astute business people giving credit where credit is due. I know the guy who did the job for them, and he says the siblings are very excited about the changes. Probably just because the bottom line is fattened, but isn’t that what this discussion is all about? Making our day-to-day life run on less energy?

“Some other ideas, from another poster, were not so good. You can’t control cow poop buddy.”
Your easy dismissal of the big picture shows me just how comprehensive your lack of understanding of physics and the laws of nature is. Fortunately, we live in a world that is highly connected (for now), and will therefore bear out the results of different tactics quickly for all to see.
As for your cow poop comment, I’m not quite sure what you mean, but if taken literally, we are not only controlling it, but creating richer soil and sequestering atmospheric carbon at the same time! On a broadacre scale! Permaculturalists aren’t complaining about climate change, or CO2, or methane from cattle. We’re just fixing it, and celebrating with a steak. With a specific plow, some seed, a small herd of cattle, and a brain, I can increase the organic matter content in your soil, all of your soil, by a minimum of 2% in one year.
So what, you ask? Well, higher organic soil content means it holds more water onsite, increases fertility, resists disease more effectively, and increases yields. All of which has the net effect of reducing expensive inputs, and increasing profits, naturally. Surely you can infer patterns from this one example.
But if you dismiss out-of-hand the things you don’t understand, you will fall even farther behind. Permaculture is light-years ahead of you, and freely offering to help you catch up.
Make up your mind, do you want solutions or talky-talky?

“Saddam Hussein announced in 2000 that he’s going to trade Oil in the Euro.”
The US invaded Iraq in 2003, citing weapons of mass destruction. (If Saddam had any, he’d have used them on his own people.)
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who became president of Iran in 2005, lost little time in announcing his interest in trading oil in Euros.
See this 2006 report: energybulletin.net/node/12463
Coincidence? Ever wonder why he Ahmadinejad is now public enemy number one just because he wants to build some civilian nuclear power plants?
Ever wonder why so many US commentators were wetting themselves about the problems the Euro face, becasuse of Greece (which always has been insolvent, anyway)?
The genie is out of the bottle. The oil producing nations know how to destroy the US, without dropping a single bomb.
Thinking about it, the US presence in the Middle East is to keep the pressure on these leaders who might think about flirting with the Euro – we won’t win the ground war but we can seriously mess up your country for the forseable future. They, on the other hand, just have to wait until the US cannot afford this crusade.
So then, no chance of Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama pulling out.

RecoverylessRecovery | February 25, 2010 2:15 PM | Reply…And that’s TOO BAD because I completely agree with you on Points points 1 & 2. But now that you’ve become a raging lunatic you’re really not useful to anyone.
UNLESS of course you’re willing to strap on a bomb vest and make yourself useful at the local IRS office.
Look into that option, will ya?
Say, you are the one with the (not so)brite ideas, why don’t YOU try it on for size, asshole.

I thank God every day for the brave men and women that have fought and died to keep these United States free from socialism. And I suspect that the vast majority of us would do the same again if called upon. -CowboyJackoff
Yeah, right, free for the Capitalist jokers at the top to rape and pillage the whole fucking planet so they can get 1% richer. Yeah, thats worth killing millions of people the world over for. Oh, that blood must feel good dripping between their fingers. Nice and warm on those cold winter days….
Meanwhile, they exported all the best jobs to China, the fucking traitors.
The last time anyone died rightly for this country was in WWII. Since then its just been to protect the capitalist pigs at the top, so their lives given in “service” have just been a fucking waste. Especially if given in the past decade for the smirking little toad, GWB.
And say, RecoverylessRecovery, why don’t YOU go down to the IRS office with a stick of dynomite up your ass and lite the fuse….

Professor = Brotfresser
as a matter of putting your money where your mouth is,I hope all you anti-social (ists)will donate your retirement(social security) and medicare to the 30 million breeding illegal aliens,you brought in here,and then kick their ass back to where they came from,and don’t forget to be on the same oxcart leaving,you treasonous bastards.

“The last time anyone died rightly for this country was in WWII.”
Actually, there are claims that IBM networked for the third reich – locations of Jewish properties, that sort of thing. There’s a possibility that our reasons were entirely noble politically, but disaster capitalism got its roots in WWII.

“And say, RecoverylessRecovery, why don’t YOU go down to the IRS office with a stick of dynomite up your ass and lite the fuse….”
Believe me, if I had any guarantees that I would take YOU and another 1500 assholes like you along with me ..IT’D BE A DONE DEAL ALREADY.
But actually I’m having A LOT more fun watching your war criminal, financially fraudulent nation COLLAPSE before my very eyes. Why should *I* die to save a nation of dimwitted masturbators when it’s so MUCH FUN watching YOU die for it instead?
We now return you to your economic implosion. There will be no further commercial interruptions….

In the words of Bob Marley “So much trouble in the world”
I am reading The Art of the Commonplace by Wendell Barry. A very thoughtful Kentucky farmer who has a sane message of localize economies and respect for resources and anti-waste.

You know, Che Guevara’s ambition was to destroy the USA by creating for it, “One, two, MANY Vietnams”.
Well, little could he have known that just a few decades later he would have the immeasurable help of GW Bush in making it all come true! Afghanistan (aka; The Graveyard of Empires), Iraq, Pakistan, and the 57 other countries where you child-molesters have troops has you dipshits more spread out than a complacent hooker on ecstasy.
Let’s summarize the current situation of your elementary school-bombing ‘civilization;
-more spread out than a cheap hooker.
-as broke as the deadbeat alcoholic that wiped my windshield clean this morning. If not BROKER.
-as oversexed and perverted as an American golf champ.
-as retarded as the president you people put into office TWICE.
-as FINISHED as the Roman Empire.

Go on assholes. Continue to discuss composting and global warming and the benefits of socialized health care WHILE GOLDMAN SACHS MERRILY PUMPS YOU SUCKERS FULL OF ITS LOVEJUICE.
Via YOUR RECTUMS, of course.

“Opting out” means giving Goldman Sachs the ultimate finger. You want to storm the tower and get shot by security, go ahead. Instead, I think I’ll just quit contributing to the formal economy altogether, and let them rot. But it takes a lot of education and practice to take care of yourself. Education in the art of living without as much fossil fuel energy takes effort. Things like composting and peanuts have a lot more to do with telling GS where they can stick their grubby, thieving fingers than you think.
I’ve been where you are, and I offended a lot of people back then. Settle down and start talking about HOW to do it.

But actually I’m having A LOT more fun watching your war criminal, financially fraudulent nation COLLAPSE before my very eyes. Why should *I* die to save a nation of dimwitted masturbators when it’s so MUCH FUN watching YOU die for it instead? – RecoverylessRecovery
So, you Canadian, Eh?
But hey, like I said before, I have a right to be pissed, and I don’t have to hold it back anymore either.
I have watched my home country go from arguably once justifiably called the greatest country on the earth, to the Great Whore Babylon. You know what a whore is, don’t you? A whore will do anything for MONEY. Thats what the USA has become, the Great Whore Babylon.
You have to get out of the belly of the Beast to see it though. While you are trapped inside, it all seems ok, normal. but when you are outside the Beast, you realize how ugly, filthy, and disgusting it is. You feel revolted that you were trapped in the bowels of such a disgusting, horrible monster for so damm long. When you look back from afar, you WILL feel justified anger at what you were living in, and looking around you, at what it is doing to the rest of the world: It is consuming it whole, and shitting in its own bed, living in filth. You look on in fear and anger wondering if anything can stop such a monster. You fear that there IS nothing that will stop it. That it will consume the world, leaving nothing but a big pile of shit. You may even feel sad for the human race. But that will pass, as will we. Its Evolve or Die Human, and I guess we will fail the test and die out.
I hope that there is something left for what ever comes after us…..

I hear & respect what you’re saying. But the time to implement slow-working methods such as you propose is WAAAAAaaaay past & gone by now.
You see, the U.S. is like a tumor-stricken patient whose cancer (aka; FRAUD & CORRUPTION) has already metastasized wildly thru-out the entire body, infecting every major organ and bone structure. In fact I personally believe that THIS particular patient (the U.S.) is TERMINAL. The known remedies that could have prevented this disease from progressing WERE NOT APPLIED in time.
PERHAPS the ONLY possible solution at this advanced stage would be massive AMPUTATION.
IRS? SNIP!
Overseas wars? SNIP!
Federal Reserve? SNIP!
Corrupt Politicians & Financiers? DOUBLE SNIP!
GW Bush’s balls? SNIP! (ok, that wasn’t on the list originally but since I already had the scissors in my hand….)
YOUR APPROACH on the other hand is taking this semi-comatose, dying patient AND PUTTING HIM ON A LOW-CARB DIET of healthy veggies and greenbeans. Sweetheart: THIS patient looks like he probably WON’T even make it thru the night!
BTW, consider THIS; which of the two ‘remedies’ do you think Goldman Sach’s would FEAR the most? ..the threat of forced recycling or THE THREAT OF CASTRATION?

I think we got off on the wrong foot, you and I. Because the more I read you the more I notice that we agree on almost everything. Including perhaps our little tendency to bite people’s heads off? 😉
Anyway I LOVE what you wrote up above and agree wholeheartedly about the Babylon Hooker comment.
Shucks should we hold hands now……?

Taxed Enuf Already! You betcha. The IRS is illegal AND immoral. Socializm was spawned by Christ hating Jews and once agin it rears its ugly head in the guise of a silver tongued Muslim devil. Well, God loving hetrosexual Americans have had there bellys full so bring on the civil war! You just wait, when the socialists come to kill your mama youl wish YOU had a gun! And when they inject your kids with nano chips and fill there heads with EVIL humanist rot youll wish you pulled out of public school. The LIBERTY movement is getting stronger day by day. We have the airwaves and we have the guns and we have God on our side.

Back on topic; the Teabag Party Movement is DOOMED at present as an effective political tool because they lack coherency, cohesiveness and -quite frankly- a good solid set of collective brass balls.
First they need to all agree to limit their efforts to a specic list of grievances. Preferably a SHORT one. Good luck with that. Then they need to unify and coalesce their efforts under ONE nationwide leadership. Again, it’s four leaf clover time.
THEN -and here comes the REALLY dicey part- they all have to possess the discipline and commitment to willingly GO OUT and ANTAGONIZE authorities in MASSIVE protests producing MASSIVE arrests. Joe Stack admirers would be welcome to apply at this stage.
The U.S. government will then find itself FORCED to make a choice; soil its image overseas with potential investors (further ..if such a thing is still possible) by brutally suppressing a popular uprising OR willingly accepting to downsize itself according to the demands of popular sentiment.

Hogwash! The Tea Party has just begun.
We stand for the Bible and the Constitution and that sounds pretty darn “coherent” to me. And weve got the BALLS. Two words buster: Austin, Texas. And hows this for a short list: NO SOCIALIZM.
Don’t worry, the uprising IS coming.

“Thinking about it, the US presence in the Middle East is to keep the pressure on these leaders who might think about flirting with the Euro…”
I can see you are really up to the moment (not). There is a high likelihood that the Euro will not even survive.
“Greece’s debt crisis has plunged the euro into a ‘ difficult situation’, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted last night, prompting fresh fears about the collapse of the single currency.
In the gravest sign yet of the international threat posed by Greece’s crippled economy, Mrs Merkel warned for the first time that the eurozone faces a ‘ dangerous’ period.”
Full story here:dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1253791/Merkel-The-euro-difficult-situation-time.html

RE: The “John Birch” poster above
I call moby.
“moby” from Urban Dictionary
insidious and specialized type of left-wing troll who visits blogs and impersonates a conservative for the purpose of either spreading false rumors intended to sow dissension among conservative voters, or who purposely posts inflammatory and offensive comments for the purpose of discrediting the blog in question.
The term is derived from the name of the liberal musician Moby, who famously suggested in February of 2004 that left-wing activists engage in this type of subterfuge: “For example, you can go on all the pro-life chat rooms and say you’re an outraged right-wing voter and that you know that George Bush drove an ex-girlfriend to an abortion clinic and paid for her to get an abortion….”
Whatever.
But, John Birch, keep this in mind:
*This is not a conservative blog.
* if you are doing impersonations, don’t be so one dimensional and unimaginative, like a lockstep,cardboard copy of what you think a “conservative” is.
* conservative/liberal/progressive – who cares? We’ve got bigger fish to fry: effective posters here are working on figuring out solutions through brainstorming.
Join us, don’t bait us.

“the threat of forced recycling or THE THREAT OF CASTRATION?”
It has nothing to do with forced recycling. You don’t understand what I’m talking about. I actually think that the people who run outfits like GS would be far more frightened if people lost interest. So would the government. That idea is extremely threatening to them, because it automatically undermines their power structure. There’s no effective propaganda in their arsenal to reel you in if you get to thinking on your own too much.
The time to do this was 1980 (if not a helluva lot sooner), when we chose an expansionary path to more usurped riches and glory instead. This outcome was inevitable from the time we started growing and storing grains. It’s just how agrarian society works. I understand that my slow, boring actions are likely to be way too little way too late, but what’s the alternative? Nothing else will stop us from destroying ourselves. If we don’t make it at least I gave it everything I had.

First off, I dont know who the heck Moby is.
Second, “effective posters”, that’s a laugh.
I’m just letting you guys know what’s what, because your just twidling your thumbs. Glen Beck, a national hero if there ever was one, told us to get out there and do something and thats what were doing.
And I sure aint no “conservative” if youre talking that traitor George W. Bush. I’m lock step with the Bible and the Constitution.
Libral/conservative/commie — who cares? Your right on that score. Theyre all corrupt to the rotten core. But theres no need for “figuring out” solutions — the two best solutions ever are right in front of our faces — the Bible and the Constitution. They dont need to be updated or figured out — theyre pretty damn straight forward if you ask me. Anyway, that’s my two cents worth. As for the Tea Party — join us, don’t knock us.

“The LIBERTY movement is getting stronger day by day.”
The Declaration of Independence says: that we are “endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Do you know what unalienable means? LIBERTY is yours by birthright, costs nothing (“endowed”), and cannot be taken away from you: unalienable.No damn movement is necessary for LIBERTY.
Free yourself from paranoia and anger. Stay away from those who seek to manipulateyou by convincing you with rhetoric that something has been lost, something that is unalienable and yours by birthright.

Lost power for 28 hours, bummer on the no electric front but skied waist deep powder for a day. Hey Trippticket I like your style but was surprised by the Obama remark. Congress is the corruption problem, Presidents have the power problem.
America has become a despot over the past 75 years but hides behind the cloak of defeating Japan and Germany to free the world for democracy. America only takes from me and I still have to pay for everything my family or employees need. I am proud to provide (share) with my family employees but America is a fucking albatross, I have to drag its dead ass across the finish line every day of the week. Parasites abound in our culture to the extent that few even know they exist much less that they make up the entire moron majority and most of the entitled crowd too. Where is the pride anymore?? Pride in consumerism??? I buy therefore I am ??? WTF? What happened to I made more than I consumed so it was a successful day now I can go home proud. Buy that house man transform that Hood you are right in your optimism just as all losers are justified for their pessimism, we all get what we seek so be careful what you ask for.

White people become a minority in 20 years.
Why is the Tea party all white when America, as designed by the authors of the constitution, is not??
I would trust you more if you were diverse and and saw the rights of all as equal with your own. Even where opinions are concerned. Can you do it ? Can you lead or can you only bitch?

It is the only way. Jesus lead by example , his followers lead by bigotry, kind of ironic isn’t it?
A person who only exemplified love and forgiveness has his lost children carrying signs saying “God hates fags”. Tragedy.

Explain this blog of your in the context of separation of church and state. Which is the law of the land. Not everyone is a Christian now are they. So should they leave America for you? Because they belong according to the constitution. Things aren’t so simple anymore are they? So the question is do you evolve or have you decided that evolution doesn’t exist? Will you be safe or will you become the servant of a minority person who evolves faster than you?? Not so simple is it?

Ok, who dosed the pot supply with jimsom weed? Fess up. The posting around here has gone beyond weird or fringy and is into paranoid hallucinations.
Problem: restricted energy supply.
It’s a technical problem people. Consider technical solutions before marching on the courthouse with a snake in one hand and a bible in the other. Sure, it might be fun but when you get home you’ll still have to figure out how to heat the place next winter. It snowed in Florida. Your condo porch isn’t going to grow enough potatoes to feed you for a long weekend. Start dealing with the real world of acreage and access when the bank is holding on to good truck garden land waiting for the next housing boom.

“I can see you are really up to the moment (not). There is a high likelihood that the Euro will not even survive.”
Drat! I’d have got away with it if it wasn’t for you meddling kids. . .
Right now it’s a race to failure between the dollar, the Euro and the Yen. The dollar is in freefall following the rise in U.S. new jobless claims, the Euro over Greece’s debt crisis – enough to make the ever-flaky Yen look like a safe bet.
I can’t see the Euro going away right now, although I do see it as an experiment that’s largely failed.
“The costs of breaking up the euro, at this stage, far exceed the benefits,” according to the latest report. It’s akin to a president or prime minister giving some beleagued cabinate member the vote of confidence.

“Back on topic; the Teabag Party Movement is DOOMED at present as an effective political tool because they lack coherency, cohesiveness and -quite frankly- a good solid set of collective brass balls.”
Been thinking about the Tea Party Movement. . .
I think the nearest comparison is the 2003 anti-war movement, all anger and no real focus.
But if not the Tea movement, who else can shake America out of its complacency?
Crazy isn’t it? Obama is not willing to do anything, and the Republicans, already seeing him as a one-term president, don’t look like they are going to change. Generally a political party has to lose by a landslide and have a period in the wilderness before it will change core beliefs.
Who else is there? Ralph Nader? He’s damaged goods. A protest vote, not a national force.
Who else then? Sarah Palin? All she wants in life is the Republican presidential nomination. I doubt she could put aside her immense personal ambition.
Personally, I’d like to see Andy Rooney of 60 Minutes as presidential candidate. Don’t know his politics, but he sure talks a lot of sense.

Yes, Alien Nation is a great book. And Brimelow reveals the Truth about who is behind the whole thing – the Jews are the money and the muscle. He ruefully admits that the White Nationalists are right and everyone else wrong on this. But he doesn’t identify as one himself. He and the boys over at vdare.com know that the races differ in IQ, so they are for high IQ whatever the race. They see life as a battle between the smart good guys and the dumb bad guys. In other words, Whites, East Asians, and Hindus vs Blacks, Browns, and Muslims. This viewpoint is an exasperating near miss for White Nationalists, since it has alot of Truth in it but misses the mark by a lack of loyalty. And igores the danger of high IQ immigrants like the Chinese and Asians who will clearly dominate IT and Engineering – to the detriment of Whites. Those groups will not betray their own and thus will dominate the clueless, disloyal Whites. It’s the fall back position for would be White Nationalists who like Asian women.

You’re all mixed up. The Founders naturally believe America was for themselves, the Whites. Some of them said so, but mostly it was just so obvious as to not need any explanation. The Tea Party is for all people. Like you, they think that America was meant to be multicultural and the Blacks and Mexicans are neurologically wired for Democracy and Freedom to the same degree Whites are – an obvious and ridiculous farce.
As far as Religion goes, it is more complicated as many of the Founders were skeptics and Masons, an alternate rationalistic religion. But they certainly believed that a nation needed a strong moral foundation and Christianity provided that. Alot of them just couldn’t believe the whole thing.

Humans are born immature, because otherwise the head would be too big for the Mother’s birth canal. Thus, the bones in the skull are not sealed but mobile to allow for growth of the head and brain. Black Children are precocious, sitting up and walking well before Whites. But often things that develp quickly peter out quickly as well, like the Tortoise and the Hare. Just so, the skulls of Black Children seal much sooner than that of White Children. The Black Brain ends up being considerably smaller than the White average and also has fewer developmental convolusions. East Asian Children are the slowest of all to develop and the principle holds true: their brains end up bigger again than that of Whites.
What does it matter? Plenty. The head size varies in proportion to the brain size, and the brain size varies in proportion with the IQ. Small heads=small brains=low IQ.

Sometimes I wonder how far from reality certain people have gone.
Everything they have is taken for granted and not having what they believe “necessary to survive” is poverty.
Well, we should ALL have a look into “real poverty”.
May be we would understand that we are still rich, very rich indeed…

asoka-herself sez:
“Free yourself from paranoia and anger. Stay away from those who seek to manipulateyou by convincing you with rhetoric that something has been lost, something that is unalienable and yours by birthright.”
Ah you seem to be attempting to suggest that we “free ourselves”.
This would be an attempt on your part to manipulate us. I think we should “stay way” from you. (Sheeesh, you are a transparent, unedited, MORON.)

Vlad, just picked up on a comment you made last week re Julius Evola. It so happens that I have a copy of his Men Among the Ruins. Man, I’ve tried to read this, really I’ve tried, but it just doesn’t speak to me. If this is what a radical traditionalist sounds like, it’s hardly a wonder that nobody’s paying attention. Leaden prose, or maybe his translator from Italian was asleep at the job.
I note with interest what you say Evola said about Freemasonry: “it’s confused syncretism; the artificiality of most of its hierarchy’s degrees, (something that even a layman would notice); and the banality of the moralistic, social, rationalistic, and modern exogesis [presumably exegesis is meant here] applied to various borrowed elements that have an authentic esoteric character.”
Just wanted you to know that I agree on every point.

I argued above that the US was in Iran and Iraq to prevent the international oil trade from taking place in the Euro. After criticism, and some thought, I’ve polished my arguments. (Apologies for the long post.)
The US came off the gold standard in 1971; Opec agreed, at meetings in 1971 and 1973, to trade oil exclusively in US dollars. The dollar is essentially traded on the value of oil, not gold. All the US has to do is print currency, because the great majority of the world desperately needs dollars to buy oil. Third World countries sell raw materials for dollars just to stay afloat.
Thinking this way helps you understand how the US can afford to run massive deficits year in, year out (the last time US exports were greater than imports was 1975). It also explains how American leaders won’t acknowledge peak oil, alternate energy or global warming. The day the world stops buying vast amounts of oil is the day the US collapses.
Being tied to oil is a great strength, but also a colossal weakness. Oil exporting countries that disagree with American policies can smash the US with a flick of the pen.
The Europeans, wanting a part of the action, grouped together to form the Euro in 1995, stating that they wanted the oil trade.
Saddam Hussein began to trade Oil for Euros in 2000, and did rather well out of it – back then, the Euro had more purchasing power than the dollar (a barrel of oil traded for Euros bought more on the world market than one traded for dollars). The US subsequently announced Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and invaded. The campaign started in March 2003; Bagdad fell in April of that year; by June, the London Financial Times announced Iraq was selling its oil in dollars (this didn’t reach the US media).
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president of Iran in August 2005, and announced his interest in trading oil in Euros (Iran had been quietly accepting Euros for oil on a piecemeal basis since 2003). Within days the US had announced that Iran is “10 years away from developing a nuclear bomb.”
Ahmadinejad urged the 2007 Opec summit, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to end trading oil in US dollars, calling the currency “a worthless piece of paper” with limited purchasing power. He wanted everyone present to begin using the Euro. Although backed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the bid was strongly opposed by US ally Saudi Arabia. It didn’t pass. (Obviously: we’d be in a cave somewhere huddled over fire if had.)
The next Opec summit is held in Libya in 2012. Ahmadinejad has already said he will be urging his 11 fellow oil exporting countries to cease using the US dollar.
The Euro might not still be around in 2012, or it might be so worthless that no sane Opec leader would contemplate it. But what’s to stop Ahmadinejad pushing to trade in the Chinese Yuan? Iran has a special trading relationship with China, in pretty much the way that Saudi Arabia does with the US.
Believe me, the truth is on the business pages. But it’s like an occult manuscript – you have to be initiated to know what it’s all about. Economic warfare is Iran’s nuclear bomb.
If Opec groups together against the US in 2012, the US economy is over. The last Great Depression was bad enough, but back then you had vast reserves of oil, emerging as the world’s greatest manufacturing nation. The only way out of this one will be to export more than you import, but how, without oil?
But it might not even take action by Opec. Could a world economic slump slow the oil market enough to devalue the dollar enough to trigger a US collapse?
I am not a doomer, but I’m starting to think that when this all falls apart it will go faster and further than we dare imagine.

MISSION: The Coffee Party Movement gives voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as Americans. As voters and grassroots volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.

It’s pretty hard to argue that Tom Tancredo wasn’t being racist when he spoke at the Tea Party Convention, where he said, “People who could not even spell the word ‘vote’, or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House. His name is Barack Hussein Obama.”
But that doesn’t mean that the use of such overtly racist language, when it rises to the surface, is the only time race comes into play. Conservatives have become really good at ignoring how central the concern of preserving slavery was in implementing strong states’ rights in the first place, and how playing on racist fears has become tied up in anti-federal government rhetoric.
Kain says that parents who don’t want to have the federal government involved in what their kids learn in school is a valid concern, but he doesn’t say why parents might object to the federal government, whose members they elect, being involved as opposed to, say, teacher’s colleges, textbook writers, or state governments.

Individuals within the movement may not harbor racism in their hearts or may not actively racist in their individual lives. But the effects of what they advocate, removing federal government protections, are racist in practice.

As Jamelle says:
Since the 1960s, by and large, the “control” localities have lost to the federal government is the power to ostracize and push aside marginal members of their communities.